11.27.17
Osram’s new LED chip factory in Kulim, Malaysia, begins operation on time.
“We are both on schedule and within budget,” said Olaf Berlien, CEO of OSRAM Licht AG. “Given our enormous recent growth rates of 19% in the LED business, we are pleased to have the new production capacities. Our investment in Kulim also attests to the technology shift and our transition to becoming a high-tech corporation: At the beginning of this decade, conventional lighting still accounted for 80% of Osram’s business. Today, two-thirds of our sales are based on optical semiconductors.”
In November 2015, as part of its Diamond innovation and growth initiative, Osram announced plans to build the new LED chip factory in Kulim and to have it up and running by the end of 2017. A total of €370 million was invested in the first stage of completion. Osram can expand the factory in two additional stages, entailing total investment costs of up to €1 billion, including expansion of the LED assembly capacities in Osram’s global factory alliance.
“With one week’s production we could completely retrofit the street lighting of the metropolises New York, Rio, Hong Kong and Berlin with LEDs,” Aldo Kamper, CEO of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, said.
Energy savings of up to 80%, compared to conventional street lights, can be achieved with LED lighting. In addition, LED has better light color stability and can be more quickly dimmed and adjusted, so that empty streets or sidewalks do not always have to be illuminated with full brightness.
The Osram factory in Kulim will produce blue LED chips which, by means of a converter layer, can generate white light. The global LED market for general lighting is estimated to be €6 billion in 2018, roughly 6% of which is for street lighting. An average growth rate in the market of 7% per year is foreseen through 2020. The overall market for optoelectronic components – including general lighting – will be €17.5 billion in 2018.
Osram is currently investing worldwide in the expansion of the existing six sites in its LED production network. Osram is also expanding its plant in Regensburg, which currently has about 2,500 employees, and will additionally hire up to 1,000 employees.
Furthermore, Osram will be expanding its site in Schwabmünchen. In the future, Osram will manufacture LED primary materials in clean rooms there. In addition, Osram also has another plant for LED primary products in the US city of Exeter. In Wuxi, China, Osram is expanding its capacity for assembling LED chips into complete LEDs – i.e. light-emitting diodes with a housing and partly with primary optics too. In Penang, Malaysia, located near Kulim, LED chips are also manufactured and assembled.
“We are both on schedule and within budget,” said Olaf Berlien, CEO of OSRAM Licht AG. “Given our enormous recent growth rates of 19% in the LED business, we are pleased to have the new production capacities. Our investment in Kulim also attests to the technology shift and our transition to becoming a high-tech corporation: At the beginning of this decade, conventional lighting still accounted for 80% of Osram’s business. Today, two-thirds of our sales are based on optical semiconductors.”
In November 2015, as part of its Diamond innovation and growth initiative, Osram announced plans to build the new LED chip factory in Kulim and to have it up and running by the end of 2017. A total of €370 million was invested in the first stage of completion. Osram can expand the factory in two additional stages, entailing total investment costs of up to €1 billion, including expansion of the LED assembly capacities in Osram’s global factory alliance.
“With one week’s production we could completely retrofit the street lighting of the metropolises New York, Rio, Hong Kong and Berlin with LEDs,” Aldo Kamper, CEO of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, said.
Energy savings of up to 80%, compared to conventional street lights, can be achieved with LED lighting. In addition, LED has better light color stability and can be more quickly dimmed and adjusted, so that empty streets or sidewalks do not always have to be illuminated with full brightness.
The Osram factory in Kulim will produce blue LED chips which, by means of a converter layer, can generate white light. The global LED market for general lighting is estimated to be €6 billion in 2018, roughly 6% of which is for street lighting. An average growth rate in the market of 7% per year is foreseen through 2020. The overall market for optoelectronic components – including general lighting – will be €17.5 billion in 2018.
Osram is currently investing worldwide in the expansion of the existing six sites in its LED production network. Osram is also expanding its plant in Regensburg, which currently has about 2,500 employees, and will additionally hire up to 1,000 employees.
Furthermore, Osram will be expanding its site in Schwabmünchen. In the future, Osram will manufacture LED primary materials in clean rooms there. In addition, Osram also has another plant for LED primary products in the US city of Exeter. In Wuxi, China, Osram is expanding its capacity for assembling LED chips into complete LEDs – i.e. light-emitting diodes with a housing and partly with primary optics too. In Penang, Malaysia, located near Kulim, LED chips are also manufactured and assembled.