LED industry's four major roadblockers

According to recent news from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology website, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the economic operation of the lighting electrical industry from January to December 2012. The situation shows that from January to December 2012, China's lighting electrical industry accumulated industrial output value has increased by 15.9% year-on-year, cumulative production and sales rate of 98.01%, the cumulative completion of the ship value increased by 5.82% year-on-year; December industrial output value in a single month to complete year-on-year The increase was 15.67%, and the completed shipment value increased by 7.92% year-on-year. The development of China's lighting market in 2012 is relatively optimistic. Looking ahead to 2013, what trends will the industry develop?

I. The output value of lighting industry in China increased 15.9% year-on-year in 2012

From the perspective of production completion, the output of electric light sources has increased slightly, but the two major products have both increased and decreased, and the increase and decrease are significant. As of the end of December, the cumulative production of electric light sources was 21.147 billion, an increase of 1.5% year-on-year, including 4.183 billion fluorescent lamps, an increase of 10.5% year-on-year; and 4.528 billion incandescent lamps, a year-on-year decrease of 15.9%; the production of lighting fixtures and lighting devices was comparable to that of the same period of last year Without change, the cumulative production of 2.631 billion sets (sets, a).

Second, in 2013, China's LED lighting industry market development analysis "China's LED lighting industry upstream chip makers will usher in a fierce reshuffle period in 2013, the downstream lighting applications into a quagmire of the price war, profit margins have been greatly squeezed. "On January 10, at the 74th China New Energy Salon organized by the All-China New Energy Chamber of Commerce, Chen Yansheng, vice chairman and secretary general of the China Illuminating Engineering Association and senior engineer, took a short sentence and placed the green lighting industry in a position." The situation is perfectly sketched.

1. LED penetration into home lighting According to previous statistical data, there are 8,000 lighting production enterprises in the country, but with the rise of LED in recent years, there are more than 10,000 domestic lighting production enterprises. Chen Yansheng listed this group. The data is intended to demonstrate the prosperity of the LED lighting market.

With the advantages of high brightness, low heat, long life, non-toxic, recyclable, etc., LED is known as the most promising green lighting source in the 21st century. In recent years, China has vigorously promoted green lighting and issued the “Government Notice and Road Map for Phase-out of Incandescent Lamps” on October 1, 2011. In July 2012, the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan for the Development of Semiconductor Lighting Technology" issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology clearly stated that by 2015, a batch of pilot demonstration cities and characteristic industrialization bases will be built to form an internationally competitive The overall goal of the semiconductor lighting industry. Today, LED lighting is rapidly gaining popularity in the field of public facilities lighting, and has gradually infiltrated the commercial lighting, office lighting and home lighting markets.

2. Industry has not yet reached the maturity stage. “As early as 2001, some people proposed that with the improvement of luminous efficiency, LED lighting will have a revolutionary impact on the global lighting industry. However, LED lighting is not a mature industry at present. Chen Yansheng pointed out.

In Chen Yansheng's view, the days of business in the LED lighting industry chain are not very good. The technology-based LED chip upstream manufacturers lack technical advantages. "If the technology is divided into three levels, the European and American countries currently mastering the core technology and Japan are at the first level, South Korea's Samsung, LG, etc. are in the second tier, and our enterprises are still in the third tier." There are many packaging companies and they are small in size.

In 2012, compared with 2011, the LED lighting market has “increased output, but sales have not increased, and profits have also dropped significantly.” The competition for lighting application companies in the downstream is even fiercer. "There is no such thing in the world as China, so there are so many companies doing LED lighting." Chen Yansheng said, "the upper reaches of the technical requirements of high capital investment, the middle reaches do not make money, so they all thought of the downstream split cups; the other hand, the traditional lighting In order not to be eliminated by the market, enterprises have also begun to actively switch to the LED lighting market. Coupled with many well-funded companies to see the promising future of LED lighting, they also have to get involved.”

3, how to get rid of the price war quagmire enterprises get together and bring unprecedented prosperity of the industry, but also to the company has brought endless troubles. Dongguan Youmei Power Equipment Co., Ltd. encountered this problem. Zhang Yafei, general manager of the company’s Beijing branch, said: “Some distributors have strict control over prices, and even offered to reduce quality to reduce costs.” This traps companies In a dilemma, "if we cater to consumers' requirements, doing a low-end product will undermine the brand image of the company; if we do not reduce costs, the profits of the enterprise cannot be guaranteed. In this case, what should we do?" There are so many people in the industry that there are only a few dozen small workshops, and the products produced can sell for ten dollars or even a few dollars.

However, such products cannot be guaranteed in terms of quality. In the long run, the damage will be the overall reputation of the LED lighting market. In this case, what should we do?” “What should we do?” This is actually a question that most LED lighting companies are pondering over. Chen Yansheng’s proposal is: “The LED lighting industry is time to return to rationality. Next, there will be some mergers and consolidations.

At this time, relying on price wars and reducing quality are self-digging graves, spelling technology and fighting innovation can be based on a long-term basis. "In the next few years, traditional energy-saving products and LED lighting products coexist. The traditional light-emitting efficiency of energy-saving light bulbs is about 60 lumens per watt, LED has gradually reached 130 lumens per watt, which is the opportunity for LED lighting to replace the traditional energy-saving light bulbs. For LED lighting companies, the luminous rate of LED lighting products is far greater than 130 lumens per watt. Perhaps it is the time to find a survival chip.

Third, LED lighting is a common roadblocker on the road: price, size, compatibility, consumers are willing to popularize LED lighting needs to overcome the cost, size, compatibility with the existing lighting system (mainly dimming) and the challenges of the consumer's wishes . From the cost point of view, the price of light sources fell more than two years, from 3-4 US dollars per 1,000 lumens in 2011 to 2 US dollars in 2012, but the drive chip innovation is slow, the current dimming driver chip cost is 2 -3 US dollars.

In terms of volume, the trend toward lighter and lighter power supplies also requires smaller LED drivers. The most popular light bulb in Japan is the E17. Its volume is very small. It is very difficult to put LED driving electrons into it. The more popular GU10 size bulbs in Europe and America, the dimming drive is very difficult, so the profit is relatively high.

In terms of compatibility, LED lighting adopts a current driving mode, and the existing dimmers are mostly voltage dimming, so in terms of compatibility, the smoothness, dimming range, and flicker-free challenge are also quite large.

In addition, the price of LED light bulbs is higher than that of incandescent bulbs, so consumers' expectations are certainly high. LED lighting products need to use the driver IC dimming technology to provide consumers with a unique sensory experience. Therefore, in addition to the quality of lighting, some special features, such as adjustable color temperature (manufacture situation), support..., and flat panel dimming, are all key factors influencing the consumer's wishes.