As the incandescent phase-out policy took effect starting October 1st, a vigorous competition between LED lighting luminaire and incandescent bulbs opened. The reporter finds that despite positive factors like favorable policy and characteristics of energy efficiency and environment protection, LED luminaire, relative to incandescent that has advantages of 130-year use habit of people and much lower price, and with energy-saving lights in between, has a long way to go to win this battle.
Banned incandescent still on sale
According to “ The announcement of the ban on sales of general lighting incandescent”, published together by National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of Customs, State Administration of Industry & Commerce and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, starting October 1st this year, 100-watt-and-above general lighting incandescent bulbs will be banned for sales and imports. Now the phase-out policy has been effective for about half a month, but the reporter’s market inspection shows that some traders are still keeping selling 100-watt-and-above incandescents.
At the shop of Le’anju (Xinzhou), 100-watt incandescents are found on sale with prices ranging from 3 yuan to 8 yuan, but they are not easy to see, generally kept inside cabinet or installed in luminaire as sample bulbs. The salesman said, “Although incandescent bulbs are gradually withdrawing from the market, their brightness is beyond the reach of LED lights and energy-saving lights. In addition, the initial costs of LED lights are much higher than incandescents. So, building sites and peasant-worker residences still use incandescents.”
After Le’anju, the reporter went to several luminaire wholesale markets and small hardware stores where they found that some stores also kept selling 100- watt –and- above general lighting incandescents. At a hardware store in Shangsha Cun, the salesman took out several 100-watt incandescent bulbs, saying “3 yuan per unit, cheap and durable. If you are looking for higher brightness, you can have 200 watts with better luminous effect. ”
Incandescent makers take the opportunity to take off
Zhao Xiaofei, president of Gaogong LED Industry Institute (GLII), told the reporter that within the country, in spite of phase-out of incandescents, this is the time, surprisingly, for incandescent makers to achieve the greatest profit. GLII finds that many incandescent makers feel less stressed than before. Previously, the competition between so many incandescent makers were fierce; presently, the closing-down and transition of a lot of incandescent makers amid the emergence of energy-saving lights and LED lights has left more space for holding-on incandescent makers to grab a favorable opportunity.
“European and American countries have moved into the stage of overall phase-out of incandescents. However, given that incandescent bulbs have appropriate illumination intensity and lower price, and that consumers think that compared with incandescents, energy-saving lights and LED lights have worse illuminating quality, limited light color options and slower start-on, plus the worries about the possibility of migraine and epilepsy caused by the flicker of inflorescent lamps, many countries in Europe and America have seen a surge in stocking incandescent bulbs. Now China’s phase-out policy will ban the production and sales of incandescents, which definitely will spur Chinese incandescent makers to find market in Europe and America.” said Zhao Xiaofei.
The reporter has searched on “Baidu” and finds that September 1st of 2009 was the commence day of the ban on dealers’ purchase of 100- watt incandescent bulbs in 27 EU countries. There was coverage going “Due to the prior leak of the ban, the recent time has seen a turbulence of citizens snapping up incandescent bulbs.” A Germany market survey expert said “People are rushing to purchase this traditional product which they are so familiar with. Some even have stocked 5-to10-year amount for use. ”
LED lights moves on a fast track
Encouraged by the phase-out policy published last year, there appeared a flood of entries to LED lighting market. According toGLII’s latest statistical report,in the first half of this year, there have been over 1,800 new indoor lighting enterprises, exceeding 60% of which originally specialized in LED display production and LED packaging.
GLII’s statistical report also shows that in the first half of 2012, China LED indoor lighting market has expanded rapidly, with a growth of nearly 36% compared with the same period of last year. Four product categories of LED tube, globe bulb, downlight and spotlight have seen outstanding growth in sales. It is projected that across the whole year of 2012, China LED indoor lighting market will hit 25 billion yuan, growing over 40% year-over-year.
LED lights proceed along a rugged path
Incandescent bulbs have been used for more than 130 years since its invention by Edison in 1879, while the use of LED lighting is within the recent 10 years since scientific and technical workers developed LED that emits light via PN junction. On one hand, incandescent bulbs have advantages of 130-odd-year use habit of people and much lower price, but disadvantage of high energy consumption; on the other hand, LED has advantages of favorable policy, energy efficiency and environment protection, and yet disadvantage of higher price due to high cost. This competition between incandescents and LED is doomed to be a prolonged process. However, people’s pursuit of energy efficiency and environment protection decides that the final success will go to LED undoubtedly.
In the evaluation of this competition, all of industry experts interviewed hold the same opinion that LED will definitely replace incandescents, but it still has a long way to go to gain final success.
Industry insiders say that phase-out policy only releases a signal to consumers that incandescents will weed out, but when it comes to substitute, basically, consumers only know energy-saving lights, without awareness that LED lights are the ultimate replacement. What’s more, phase-out policy only bans import and sales of incandescents, instead of production, which will add difficulty for LED to win this competition. Currently, the cheapest LED luminaires available in the market price 3 times higher than the most expensive incandescents. Although the use of incandescent bulbs, especially 100-watt-and-above incandescens,t now is limited to some mine enterprises, building sites and remote rural houses, high selling price of LED lights stands an obstacle to their popularity. Consumers even find it hard to get access to LED lights for the sales are limited to large luminaire markets and super markets. It at least takes 3 to 5 years in the promotion for real use of LED lights in households.
Industry insiders say that phase-out policy only releases a signal to consumers that incandescents will weed out, but when it comes to substitute, basically, consumers only know energy-saving lights, without awareness that LED lights are the ultimate replacement. What’s more, phase-out policy only bans import and sales of incandescents, instead of production, which will add difficulty for LED to win this competition. Currently, the cheapest LED luminaires available in the market price 3 times higher than the most expensive incandescents. Although the use of incandescent bulbs, especially 100-watt-and-above incandescens,t now is limited to some mine enterprises, building sites and remote rural houses, high selling price of LED lights stands an obstacle to their popularity. Consumers even find it hard to get access to LED lights for the sales are limited to large luminaire markets and super markets. It at least takes 3 to 5 years in the promotion for real use of LED lights in households.
In addition, based on price reduction and quality improvement, the widespread use of LED lights also relies on the strength of leading enterprises. However, it is a pity that real big players have not emerged, because these numerous domestic LED lighting enterprises, small in sizeand disperse in geographical distribution, each does things in their own way. Therefore, the expert calls for strategic restructuring inside the industry to expand LED lighting market, spurring its application into household lighting. “but this process needs at least 3 years,” so said the expert. Additionally, energy-saving lights also serve as a key element that will impact the final success of LED lights in the competition. If the country imposes restriction on domestic energy-saving lights that contain mercury and raise their production cost, LED will be one step closer to the final success.
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