Taiwan

New Trooper on the Horizon

Armed with R&D and innovation, Taiwanese companies are making moves to capture the low cost LED lighting segment

A recent report of Frost & Sullivan Research reveals that India’s LED lighting market size was around Rs.400 crore in 2010, and will continue to grow at a compounded annual rate of 45.53% till 2015. Besides domestic players, this state of the market has impressed many international LED lighting companies, particularly from Taiwan. The recent Taiwan-India Investment Protection Agreement, the setting up of offices and customer service branches by two Taiwanese wafer majors Taiwan Semi Conductor Co and UMC, and the US$ 6.47 billion bilateral trade between the two countries in 2010 alone, have together given more thrust to the trade between them.

A glimpse of this interest was visible at the just concluded LED Expo in New Delhi, which witnessed a strong participation of Taiwanese companies. “This year 14 companies participated under our country pavilion in the trade show. We want to promote Taiwan’s industrial image and tell the Indian buyers about the country’s dominance and creativity in LEDs,” informs Wang Shihhui (shwang@taitra.org.tw), project manager of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council. The spur in B2B interactions is based on an idea that Taiwan needs a market to grow, and their products can compete with the indigenous and foreign produced low-priced LED lights that have inundated the market.

Shihhui says, “As US and Europe continue to grapple with recession, India has emerged as the second fastest growing economy in the world. India’s strong economic fundamentals have resulted in an increased purchasing power of its 30-crore plus middle class population, which can afford LED lights. Besides, the consumption of these products will increase due to the policy being pursued by various government bodies for promoting LED lights in the public space.”

He believes that although Taiwan is a late entrant in India, it will be able to recover lost ground by targeting the expanding low-price segment. “Taiwanese will create a niche for themselves by offering quality system integration, embedded chips, chip architecture and fixtures at the low prices which Indian buyers prefer.”

Explains Nick Hsu  (nick.hsu@mail.pida.org.tw), international specialist, Mktg  & business development of Photonics Industry & Technology Development Association, “Taiwan has a biosphere for innovation in electronics and technology, which the country imbibed under the 51-years imperial Japanese rule. The R&D pedigree of our companies enables them to slash the cost of LED material, component and fixtures to a level where it will be only 10-15% higher than the cheap imported products currently available in India, and yet superior in quality.” He adds that there is a need to educate Indian customers about the relative sourcing advantages of Taiwanese products over the inferior products coming in from other Asian countries.

But there are hurdles that are preventing Taiwanese companies from penetrating the Indian markets rapidly. “The need to contact and coordinate with multiple government and industry bodies is creating hassles for our members,” says T P Chen (tosia@itri.org.tw), president of the cooperation committee of Taiwan Optoelectronic Semiconductor Industry Association. “We learned that in order to deepen our presence in India, it is necessary to establish channels of communication withthe Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, BEE, ELCOMA, and the LEDMA. We came to New Delhi this time to forge ties with them.”