The German firm Aitron (headquartered in Aachen, Nordrhein-Westfalen) has announced that its financial report for the third quarter of FY2011, ending December, 2011, showed sales of €470 million, down by 16%, and operational profit also down by 25%, amounting to €219 million, with ordinary profit down by 31%, amounting to €131 million, showing a huge drop in both earnings and profit.

A glance at the individual regions shows that their East Asian market, which includes Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China, accounts for an overwhelming large share of their business, 89%, while the US accounts for 7%, and Europe the remaining 4%. In terms of use, sales of MOCVD devices for use in the LED sector accounted for 83%, over half of total sales, coming to €350 million.

“Up to now, the startup of LED mass production in China has been pulling along the demand for MOCVD. However, the rise in the demand in the LED market could not keep up. Adjustment in LED production affected the situation so that sales during the third quarter were dull,” indicated Hisatoshi Hagiwara, president of Aixtron, Japan.

The company plans to complete construction of its research and state of the art product production plant located at its main plant by the spring of 2012. In addition, it completed construction of its development and design facility in November of 2010, all of which shows its very positive stance regarding investment. As for its business in Japan, president Hagiwara showed a very positive outlook when he stated, “LED production in Japan is catching up with that of China, Taiwan, and Korea. In terms of technology related to power semiconductors and organic EL displays, we stand way out in front. We are aiming at opening up these areas.”

According to the company, the global MOCVD market for 2010 amounted to $1.7 billion, expanding 3.2 fold over the previous year. Their analysis shows that the company, holding 54% share of the market, putting it in first place.