In line with the global trend toward green energy, LED (light-emitting diode) lighting emerged as a focus of this year`s Guangdong International Lighting Fair, the biggest event on the annual calendar for the Chinese lighting industry. The show was held on June 9-12 at the Pazhou Exhibition Complex.
More than 200 LED lighting companies mounted exhibits in the two dedicated LED halls, accounting for a seventh of the total number (1,543). Their displays were no longer limited to the outdoor landscape lighting products of the past, but included products for outdoor and even residential lighting
The global financial turmoil had a heavy impact on the fair; the number of attending foreign buyers plummeted by 55.7%, to 5,710. Domestic buyers grew by 6.7%, however, to 40,402. The number of exhibitors was up marginally, to 1,543 (compared with last year`s 1,539). The 110,000 square meters of exhibition space in 11 halls made the Guangdong fair the largest of its kind in Asia and second-largest in the world.
The prominence of LED displays underscored the rapid development of the LED industry in China; its annual growth rate has run at 20-30% in recent years, bringing it to US$8 billion in production value last year. The figure is expected to shoot up to US$22 billion in 2010. Despite this frenetic development the industry still has to import its LED wafers and chips; domestic plants in the line are relatively small, and in terms of technology they lag their foreign counterparts by at least five years.
The Chinese LED industry turns out mostly small power-factor products used in mobile phones, traffic signals, displays, landscape decoration, special lighting, and auto lighting. With growing competition causing shrinking margins for such products, many LED producers are switching to higher power-factor products. Whether they have the technological know-how to succeed at this, however, remains to be seen.
Old assembly technology and a lack of credible testing facilities are also holding back the Chinese LED industry
Product safety is another major concern, since resistance to water and electricity leakage are sometimes questionable. Further, durability is short and styling design is weak.
Nevertheless, LED lighting has a huge market potential because of its long product life and miserly consumption of electricity. This potential will be more fully realized once LED use spreads from special applications to the enormous utility lighting market, which has an annual global value of US$90 billion.
(by CENS)
