LED industry tackles supply constraints

The LED lighting industry is struggling to keep pace with customer demand and is having to scale up manufacturing capacity at a rapid rate, according to one of the sector's leading firms.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Businessgreen.com, Lighting Science Group (LSG) chief executive and chairman Govi Rao, admitted that the company had turned away requests from some prospective customers due to supply chain constraints.

However, he insisted that the company was now working to increase manufacturing capacity following its recent acquisition of Dutch lighting specialist Lighting Partner BV (LPBV).

"LPBV has a solid presence in Europe and is also working with a manufacturing partner in Thailand," he said. "We are now looking to work with that partner to bolster our manufacturing capacity further and we have already moved the production line for some of our products into the Thailand facility."

He added that the company was also in talks with a number of potential manufacturing partners in the US, Europe, Japan and the Middle East that it plans to license its design to under original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreements.

LED or solid state lighting has attracted considerable interest in recent years as firms seek to curb energy costs. Supporters of the technology claim that it uses a fraction of the energy of conventional bulbs and, unlike rival CFL bulbs, does not contain any mercury.

LSG for example claim its bulbs will save firms $738.40 in energy costs over the life of the bulb, compared to incandescent bulbs and $72.49 compared to compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Rao said that as a result of the cost savings the company was seeing booming demand for its products from the retail and commercial products in particular. He added that LSG was also seeking to expand its presence in the domestic market, revealing to launch a range of new consumer products in the next year, which it will aim to sell to house builders.