LED surplus impacted by display demand

The high demand for LED displays is causing the surplus which was generated after multiple new players enter the manufacturing market to be eroded, according to figures published by NPD DisplaySearch.

The largest proportion of the demand is being generated by the market for LED backlit displays, which are now a mainstream consumer commodity.

The current figures suggest that the market is set to reach its peak in 2013, which means that LED manufacturers will need to increase their outputs in order to avoid being caught short on the supply side of things.

A number of devices which use LED backlit displays are being highlighted as exponents of this trend, with things like laptop computers, tablets and smartphones driving the market.

Interestingly, there was a dip in demand for LED TVs and associate modules, in part because improvements in efficiency means that fewer chips are required to control the backlighting setups.

When it comes to LED lighting, another area of the industry that is experiencing growth, the stats suggest that demand was increasing steadily, without being too spectacular.

Last year there was an excess of LED production because of the entry into the market of a number of major new players, according to the report.

The surplus that this generated directly led to a situation in which investing in new LED technologies and applications was undesirable, according to spokesperson, Steven Sher. This bled into the 2012 market and threatens to leave manufacturers in a tricky situation by the end of the year.

The LED lighting market is predicted to mature by 2014, at which point it could well overtake LED displays in terms of growth and popularity, according to current industry figures, which would represent a sea change in the market as a whole.