Highlights
Smart Energy
LED lighting
- Between 1,000 to 2,000 lights supplied for the Metro Manila Skyway elevated highway project in the Philippines
- Explosion-proof LED lights help reduce risk at petrochemical plants in Taiwan, the US and Southeast Asia
Formed through a transfer investment by parent Formosa Plastic Group (FPG), NYPI Photonics Incorporation (NPYI) specializes in LED lights, particularly industrial lighting, with an eye towards medical photonics.
While the company’s business model is largely business-to-business and mostly constrained to industrial lighting, it is, however, beginning to branch out into business-to-government contracts for public construction.
Expanding into the Philippines to provide industrial lighting for sister company
NYPI’s foray into the Philippines began with a partnership with fellow FPG subsidiary Formosa Heavy Industries Corp. (FHI), which had decided to expand into the Southeast Asian nation following a decline in factory expansion projects in Taiwan. Once in the Philippines, FHI began offering local industries turn-key solutions for combined heat and power plants.
“FHI’s need for industrial lighting at their power plants was the basis for the establishment of our Philippines office,” NYPI Vice President Eric Lo said.
“We had hoped to expand our client base beyond the FHI-NYPI partnership, but have yet to invest significantly in the region, or found a subsidiary or a transfer investment company, so we put out feelers for local partners,” Lo said.
It was during one of these discussions that NYPI was introduced to the Philippine government’s infrastructure projects.
Superior products lead to orders for the Metro Manila Skyway and future opportunities
NYPI’s involvement in the construction of the Metro Manila Skyway elevated highway project is one of its larger business-to-government contracts in recent years.
“Since [Philippine] President [Rodrigo] Duterte was elected, he has been more active in pushing through infrastructure projects. However, the Philippine government lacks the financial resources for such projects and usually outsources them to private contractors,” Lo said.
“Naturally, they didn’t adopt our products right off the bat and there was a three-month to half-year proof of concept period in which our lights were compared with our competitors’ products,” Lo said.
The proof of concept and trial period demonstrated to the Philippine government that NYPI’s products are more reliable, which led to the decision to import and use more of NYPI’s products.
NYPI has supplied between 1,000 to 2,000 lights to the Philippine freeway project to date and the Philippine government has, after a period of cooperation, issued a request for NYPI to become involved in the installation of the lights.
Seeking local partner to become full-time representative
The lack of a subsidiary in the Philippines left NYPI with a quandary over the request and ultimately had to refuse.
“It is harder to grasp the going-ons of the commercial and political spheres in the Philippines, so we opted to work with partners, rather establish a more permanent presence in the area,” Lo said.
Ultimately, NYPI hopes to find an entity that is also in the photonics industry — an agent or an engineering company — to become its full-time representative in the region.
“We could provide assistance in the form of product supply, sales promotion design or technical support. It took about a year to stabilize the office and, ultimately, we would prefer to only be a supplier,” Lo said.
Explosion-proof lights maintain safety and provide profit
Among the highlights of NYPI’s product portfolio are explosion-proof lights, which have over the past two years constituted 40 percent of the firm’s total profit.
Explosion-proof lights are a necessity in petrochemical plants, where leaking gas can seep into bulbs and cause an explosion. NYPI’s explosion-proof lights are designed to contain any explosion and prevent it from spreading outwards.
“This would prevent the entire plant from going up in flames,” Lo said.
Maintaining a competitive edge in the US
While brands in the US and other countries have been manufacturing explosion-proof lights for years, they have yet to adopt LED lights, an area in which NYPI has overtaken US companies.
“Foreign companies started late in applied research regarding LED lights and as a result, their designs are more constrained by tradition,” Lo said.
While NYPI’s products have always been considered on the high side in pricing, especially in Southeast Asian markets, they are still considered competitive in the US market, as their prices are lower than those of US competitors.
Looking towards applying photonics expertise in medicine
Collaboration between FPG and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital has provided NYPI an opportunity to expand development into the field of medical photonics.
“The focus of medical research over the past few years has trended towards noninvasive physiotherapies, which led us to think that light, or phototherapy, should be considered a kind of physiotherapy,” Lo said.
NYPI’s venture into medical photonics will, however, take some time, as “NYPI knows how to produce light — what we don’t know is what kind of light is beneficial to the human body,” Lo said.
Nan Ya Photonics Incorporation
Smart Energy
LED lighting
Selling points:
- Proven product quality and reliability
- Leadership in LEDs for explosion-proof lights used in industrial applications
- Competitive prices in the US
