Mini LED is one of the more promising products in this year, the company said the main reason is Mini LED size between 100-200μm, even larger, with the existing production equipment can be slightly modified to produce.While the product size, driving mode , Current and so on are different from general LED, so need different characteristics of epitaxial wafers, but basically can be solved for the company.Expected the fastest in the second half of this year can be produced to supply backlighting customers, while using Mini LED ultra Small pitch display also have the opportunity to be imported in the second half.
VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitter) is also a new product line that will be fully developed by Crystal Electronics this year. In fact, Crystal VCSEL products are already mass-produced and supplied to data center customers, but the company continues to develop towards mobile sensing applications. Chip may supply 6-inch VCSEL wafers to the smart phone supply chain in the second quarter of this year, and may supply chip processing to Android customers in the second half of this year. Corporations are expected to contribute 3% revenue to VCSEL this year and 10% to challenge next year. As VCSEL product profit Better than LED, profit contribution will be higher than revenue contribution.
Although mainland China continued to expand production capacity may increase the next few years the LED industry boom variables, according to research institutions predict that from 2018 to 2020, the annual increase in mainland LED may reach more than 5%. However, the external crystal for this year's operation assessment is still Partial positive.
On the one hand, the impact of new LED production capacity in Mainland China may not be significant until the second half of the year, but the peak season may moderate the supply pressure in the third quarter. On the other hand, the development of new technologies and new products , Including VCSEL, Mini LED and even Micro LED under development are expected to bring new momentum and new opportunities for the company.
Micro LED and Mini LED are mainly from the size of the sub-100 Micro called Micro LED, Mini LED size 100-200μm, or even larger, with the existing production equipment can be slightly modified to produce, but regardless of Micro LED, Mini LED size Are much smaller than the general LED drive different ways, the current is different Mini LED is expected to be introduced this year, mass production, but the Micro LED distance production also need some time.
Despite the continued downward trend in the price of popular LED, last year, Crystal actively adjust the product portfolio, including the four-element LED and CSP wafer-level package LED product shipments have grown, led to a substantial increase in gross margin last year is generally expected this year, LED average decline may be Still, there are still 10% -15%, but the crystalline electricity comes from the product mix optimization note, which should help to ease the pressure of falling prices.
Epistar 2017 revenue of about 25.37 billion yuan, down 0.66%, due to product mix adjustment, gross profit margin, the first three quarters gross margin of about 21.6%, an increase of nearly 18 percentage points, the first three quarters of earnings per share 1.18 yuan fourth Quarterly revenue fell to 6.037 billion yuan, down 13.24%, an annual reduction of 4.69%. Full-year profit may still be the best results of nearly 3 years in January of this year revenue affected by the off-season, down to 1.876 billion yuan, but the year Up by 11.5%. The forecast is lower in February and rebounded in March.