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Seoul Viosys and SETi announced that Vio LEDs UV LED technology successfully killed 99.9% of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) within 30 seconds.
According to the news, Seoul Viosys and a research team from Korea University (Korea University) conducted tests using the Violeds compound semiconductor technology that is in mass production.
This study uses Violeds technology to demonstrate the strong germicidal effect of Violeds UV LED light source irradiating the novel coronavirus for 30 seconds. The study also found that if the coronavirus is placed closer to the light source and the irradiation time is prolonged, the sterilization effect will be stronger. In addition to testing coronaviruses, the research team also demonstrated that the Violeds technology can kill 99.9% of harmful bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Salmonella typhimurium.
The novel coronavirus epidemic spread rapidly before the Lunar New Year. In order to control the epidemic, the government first announced the implementation of "city closures" on several cities in Hubei, led by Wuhan City, and then successively closed Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other provinces, counties and cities. Incorporated into closed management, and extended the Lunar New Year holiday, and officially resumed work on February 10.
However, as the epidemic heats up, many areas have postponed the date of resumption of work again, and because the government and manufacturers have strengthened control, people returning to work from other counties and cities are required to self-isolate for 14 days. It is also difficult to reply immediately. According to LEDinside's survey, most LED manufacturers are quite conservative in their resumption rate, and the resumption rate in mid-February is estimated to be between 50-70%.
The backward production plan caused by the delay in resumption of work is bound to impact the overall industry. For the LED industry, from the upstream sapphire substrate, chip manufacturing, to the downstream packaging segment, and subsequent application production, the degree of impact varies depending on the location of the factory, manpower requirements, and inventory.
From the perspective of LED chip production, because the LED industry is in a state of oversupply in 2019, chip manufacturers still have inventory products accumulated last year for sale, so the production delay will not have an impact in the short term. However, because the supply of chip raw materials such as sapphire substrates may be interrupted due to the epidemic, coupled with the delay in resumption of work, and the increase in labor production costs, it is estimated that chip prices may start to increase after March.
LED downstream packaging manufacturers are more affected by the delay in resumption of work than the upstream chip side, because packaging factories have high labor demand, and most of the factories are located in Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces, and their employees are mostly migrants from all over China. If the rework condition is not good and the lack of work continues, it will directly affect the production. At the same time, because the inventory level of packaging factories is also low, the need for resumption of work is more urgent.
In terms of end-use products, Hubei, as an important center of automobile production in China, has been greatly affected by the epidemic. Since it is still difficult to determine the time for resumption of work, the lack of related components will also affect subsequent automobile production, which will lead to the impact of automotive LEDs.
The impact of panel production and backlight modules also comes from the shortage of upstream raw material supply. Although panel manufacturers have resumed production one after another, if there is a lack of materials, the factory utilization rate is expected to decrease in March. At the same time, the rapidly soaring confirmed cases in South Korea have also begun to impact local panel production.
In addition to production delays, the current global spread of the pneumonia epidemic has also caused many heavyweight exhibitions to be cancelled or postponed. The mobile phone industry event MWC, which was originally scheduled to start at the end of February, was cancelled on February 12, and the biennial Frankfurt Lighting Exhibition Light + Building was also moved from the original March to September.
The "Diagnosis and Treatment Program for Pneumonia Infected by Novel Coronavirus (Trial Version 5)" pointed out that the novel coronavirus is sensitive to ultraviolet light. Recent studies have found that there is a correlation between the new coronavirus and the SARS coronavirus. Therefore, in theory, the scientific and rational use of ultraviolet light can effectively inactivate the coronavirus.
Ultraviolet sterilization technology is one of the most commonly used and oldest sterilization technologies in medicine, with a history of more than 100 years. It is understood that, according to the wavelength, the ultraviolet band is divided into UVA, UVB and UVC from long to short, of which the deep ultraviolet UVC is the band with the shortest wavelength and the highest energy. In the ultraviolet band, the band with direct sterilization and disinfection ability is UVC.
During the SARS period in 2003, experts from the Viral Disease Prevention and Control Institute of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that irradiating the coronavirus with ultraviolet rays with an intensity greater than 90 μW/cm2 for 30 minutes could kill the SARS virus.
Although there is no test report of third-party testing laboratories using deep ultraviolet to kill the new coronavirus in this epidemic, many professionals in the industry said that UVC targets the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) of bacteria and viruses. ) has an efficient killing effect, and the new coronavirus is an RNA virus. In practice, the UVC inactivation dose of the new coronavirus needs further experiments by relevant government departments and scientific research institutions to be clear. At present, the inactivation dose of the SARS virus is generally referred to.
On May 10, 2019, the US raised tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods to the US from 10% to 25%. In this regard, China also made a counterattack. Among them, the Ministry of Commerce of China announced that China will establish an unreliable entity list system, and the Tariff Commission of the State Council also announced that starting from June 1, it will impose an additional 25 %, 20%, 10% tariffs.
According to the US taxation project, many LED lighting products are involved. After experiencing the trade turmoil and various uncertain market factors in 2018, LED companies have more or less increased risk prevention measures for their strategic planning in 2019 and beyond.
So far, China and the United States have not reached an equal and mutually beneficial negotiation result, and there are still various uncertainties in the future. How much impact the Sino-US trade war will have on LED companies depends on how dependent they are on the US side. Through sorting out some export enterprises, the market found that most of them can deal with the impact of the Sino-US trade war calmly, and have formulated active response strategies. In the future, they will pay more attention to the domestic market or the market that is less affected by the US tariffs.
Under the guidance of the strategic task of promoting the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure and cultivating new industrial growth points, LED has become the development focus of local governments. Dongguan, Huizhou, Foshan, Shenzhen, Dalian, Nanchang, Xiamen and other local governments have formulated The industrial development strategy plan has set off a wave of LED investment in China. Guangdong, which accounts for nearly half of the total domestic LED output value, listed the semiconductor lighting (LED) industry as the three strategic emerging industries that Guangdong will focus on recently in the "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Transformation of Economic Development Modes" released in May. one. The LED industry in Guangdong has formed a situation of competition among hundreds of competitors. Shenzhen, Dongguan and Foshan have all listed the LED industry as a pillar industry development. The LED industry has shown a full bloom.
The rapid rise of domestic LED enterprises and the rapid expansion of production capacity have launched strategies to compete for the LED market. From Sanan Optoelectronics, a leading enterprise in the domestic LED industry, to Silan Microelectronics, which expanded its production capacity, to Dehao Runda, a half-way monk, the LED industry boom has swept the entire industry. The technical strength is weak and the product grade is relatively low. The competition in the LED market is fierce, and the relevant manufacturers are competing for price wars. At the same time, disordered investment and vicious competition have also appeared in the LED industry. Judging from the current domestic market dynamics and the distribution of the LED industry structure, there has been a serious problem of repeated investment.
In addition, some local governments intend to open the local market to local enterprises in the development of the economy, or lock the local market by investing in the market, and local protectionism is on the rise. If the local administrative barriers are not broken, it will inevitably bring about the convergence of industrial projects between regions, directly increase the industrial bubble, and hinder the development process of regional integration. Different regions should highlight different characteristics, and avoid simple duplication of construction for short-term interests, which will lead to vicious competition in the future.
In addition, there are a series of other problems in China's LED lighting. For example, there is no national standard for LED lamps in China, but only some local standards; my country's domestic LED lamps and lanterns are obviously insufficient in innovative design capabilities. To solve these problems, the LED industry can develop more healthily, and LED products can better meet the needs of the public. Market dominance is the basis for the long-term and healthy development of the LED lighting industry. The government must guide and support the LED lighting industry in terms of policies, regulations, R&D investment, application demonstrations and standards.