Epistar may be catalyzed by order-transfer effect from the trade war

Epistar (2448-TW) held a shareholders meeting today on May 20th. The company told that regarding the US-China trade war, Epistar has sufficient capacity to meet the requirements. In addition, due to tariff barriers, some clients have contacted and intended to transfer the orders from China’s manufacturers to Epistar and there are many cases under discussion at present. Epistar chairman Lee Biing-jye (李秉傑) also holds a positive outlook. He told that when terminal clients start to establish non-Chinese supply chains, Epistar will be catalyzed.

Regarding US-China trade war, Lee said that when terminal clients start to establish non-Chinese supply chains, Epistar will be catalyzed. However, some terminal products such as light bulbs, will eventually return to China for packaging, and the products will be shipped from China. After that, it will still be affected by the tariff. From this perspective, Epistar may not be benefitted. On the other hands, if the company transfer the light bulb to Vietnam or Mexico for packaging, it may take a long time to establish a new supply chain system.

Epistar deputy general manager of finance Rider Chang (張世賢) said that Epistar produces upstream LED chips and has established the plants both in Taiwan and China. The company has sufficient capacity to meet the requirements from US-China trade war. However, if US-China trade war continues to escalate in the future, the company plans to increase the production in Taiwan plants, and adjust the capacity in China plants simultaneously.