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A Smart Lighting Market 2015: the Spring 2015 Hong Kong Lighting Fair Survey
26 May 2015
With a proliferation of LED applications, it is expected that the global market for lighting products will remain steady in 2015. In particular, the development of smart appliances by leading technology players, especially those related to the household systems, is likely to benefit the lighting industry in the medium term. China and several of the mature markets, notably like North America and Western Europe, are seen as the markets with the highest growth potential over the next couple of years.
During the April 2015 Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Spring Edition), HKTDC Research polled 241 buyers and 135 exhibitors as to the prospects for the lighting market and the likely industry trends to emerge over the next few years.
Steady 2015 Market Outlook
Some 87% of the buyers and exhibitors canvassed at the Fair expected that their sales would remain either unchanged or would increase in 2015. Such a percentage share is lower than the number of people who expressed the same view at last October’s fair, where respondents were relatively bullish as regards the market prospects. Overall, 53% of buyers and 67% of exhibitors surveyed believed that their sales would go up this year. In sum, the global market for lighting products is expected to remain steady in 2015.
Not surprisingly, the Chinese mainland continued to be seen as the most promising market for the next two years, followed by the “other emerging market”. Mature markets, such as North America, Western Europe and Australia/Pacific Islands, also ranked among the top region, most likely due to their robust demand for energy-saving lighting apparatus.
The Almighty LED
Product-wise, LED and related green lighting apparatus are widely regarded as the areas with highest growth in 2015, as indicated by 37% of all respondents. Next in line was commercial lighting (29%) and household lighting (17%) products.
Speaking at the Asian Lighting Forum 2015 held as part of the Fair[1], Roger Chu of LEDinside of TrendForce Corp estimated that the size of the global LED lighting market would grow from US$20 billion in 2014 to US$36 billion in 2018. Furthermore, he said, the LED penetration rates would reach 54% by 2018 as compared to 26% in 2014.
Such good market prospects are due partly to the falling costs of LED. Indeed, the survey findings also showed that LED prices and costs were expected to fall further. Notably, 94% of buyers and 97% of exhibitors expected that LED retail prices would fall by as much as 20% or less over the next 12 months. As for the next one to three years, 64% of buyers and 73% of exhibitors believed prices would fall further by a similar amount.
Smart Lighting: An Industry Focus
In the meantime, smart lighting has started to emerge as an industry focus, led by the development of smart appliances by leading technology players. Among the surveyed respondents, 86% said the development of smart city and smart home technology and related applications would facilitate the lighting industry. In particular, 51% expected that household lighting systems that are compatible with or can be controlled by smartphone/tablet applications have the greatest development potential for the industry.
The homes of the future, in particular, would become smarter on the back of the advent of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology. Certain industry players envisaged that the smart home would be one of the major IoT application areas, and would elicit huge demand for related hardware and appliances, including electrical and lighting products. (For further information, please see “Smart Home Becomes the Reality”)
Profile of respondents
There were 241 buyers canvassed, with 41% based in Hong Kong and the remainder based in overseas countries/regions. Their major selling/export markets were Asia (47%), Europe (26%) and North America (17%).
Of the 135 surveyed exhibitors, 20% were based in Hong Kong and the rest based in overseas countries/regions. Their major selling/export markets were Europe (46%), North America (18%) and Asia (17%).
[1] The Asian Lighting Forum 2015 was held on 8 April 2015 at the Hong Kong International Lighting Fair.
- Electronics & Electrical Appliances
- Household Products
- Hong Kong
- Hong Kong