TYC Brother Ventures Into Mainland China's LED Streetlight Market

Taipei, Nov. 25, 2010 (CENS)--Taiwan's auto-lamp maker TYC Brother Industrial Co., Ltd. will invest US$100 million in building light emitting diode (LED) streetlight factories in mainland China as part of its efforts to tap the mainland's vast market for the energy-saving lights.

According to the company's president, K.C. Chen, TYC Brother will spend half of the money in the initial stage building a factory in Kunshan City, and then it will use another half of the funds to build factories in several cities to assemble the lights. First-stage construction will start in the first quarter of 2011 and second-stage constructions will go through three to five years.

The Kunshan facility is designed to be the company's flagship factory in the project, equipped with R&D, design and manufacturing capabilities. The factory will be used to develop and manufacture lighting fixtures with great market potential and reflector design.

Chen said at a recent forum held in Shandong Province addressing cooperation between Taiwan's enterprises and Shandong's that Chinese government's “Ten Thousand Lights in Ten Cities” project, which sets a bold goal of installing a total of six million LED streetlights in 21 cities throughout the mainland in three years, will generate huge business opportunities for the manufacturers.

Citing statistics complied by the mainland's authorities, Chen pointed out that the mainland's working 20 million streetlights nationwide generate an estimated 12 million tons of CO2 emission every day consuming 18 billion kilowatt of electricity per hour. The national LED streetlight project is estimated to help save 60% of the mainland's electricity consumption by lights.

Chen said his company is already a qualified supplier for the project since it has won Chinese government's certificates for energy-saving lighting fixtures.