Samsung’s LED business makes big global rebound

Samsung Electronics Co.’s light-emitting diode (LED) business, which was almost on the verge of a shutdown due to its sluggish performance, is making a big rebound from last year.

According to the global LED industry on July 8, Samsung has been ranked as the second-largest market player, moving up two positions from fourth place in 2018.

The global LED industry’s market size this year is projected at $13.1 billion, of which 36% is taken by the interior and exterior LED lighting segment. Samsung supplies LED components and modules to the world’s major interior and exterior lighting companies.

Samsung’s LED business was one of the company’s five key focus segments in 2010. But following the South Korean government’s designation of the LED industry in 2011 as one that limits the presence of large conglomerates to protect small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), its LED business faced a major downturn in the domestic market.

Samsung LED unit’s survival strategy after the government’s intervention was to focus on overseas markets.

The unit has been focused in expanding its foothold in the electric vehicle (EV) components market, and successfully won a deal in March to supply LED modules to be used on headlamps of the vehicles manufactured by one of the major global EV makers.

The company in April launched PixCell LED that is designed to enable adaptive drive beam (ADB) and other headlamp functions with sophisticated granular control of individual light pixels.

The ADB systems are automated high beam dimming systems that switch from high to low beams when oncoming vehicles are detected. The ADB technology is expected to be used widely by EVs and self-driving vehicles alike.

“In the era of future vehicles, using top-quality LED modules will be important to ensure energy efficiency and driving stability,” said a Samsung official.

Write to Shin-young Park at nyusos@hankyung.com
Daniel Cho edited this article.