Industry News

Philips Electronics, the world's biggest lighting maker, sees strong growth potential for solid-state lighting systems in the coming years, a market that it wants to tap into to fuel profits.

"Solid state lighting is going to be one of the growth engines," Rudy Provoost, the head of Philips' lighting business, said at at the "Light+Building" industry fair in Frankfurt on Monday.

Philips said it expected the market for professional solid-state luminaires to grow more than 30 percent per year to 1.5 billion euros ($2.4 billion) by 2010. It estimated market size at 700 million euros in 2007, a fraction of the 58 billion euro overall market.

Provoost said Philips wanted to grow at twice the rate of the market in that segment, but he would not shed light on the company's current market share or sales.

Shares in Philips were up 1 percent at 25.26 euros by 1458 GMT while the DJ Stoxx 50 rose 0.7 percent.

Solid-state lights, or LEDs (light emitting diodes), have been used for decades as indicator lights in devices such as modems, but the technology has advanced to the point where it can be used for lighting.

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