Annual Review | Eight Key Words Outline the Lighting Industry in 2024

The Lighting Industry in 2024

In 2024, "accelerating the development of new quality productive forces" was included in the Government Work Report for the first time, becoming a key focus for various industries in the near future. At the 19th "China Road Lighting Forum" and the 3rd "Yangtze River Delta Integrated Lighting Industry Ecosystem Development Forum" held at the beginning of the year, He Ye, Vice President of the China National Light Industry Council and Chairman of the China Association of Lighting Industry (CALI), stated that "we must promote the industry's development towards high-end, intelligent, and green directions by developing new quality productive forces." The 2024 China Lighting Industry Conference held in October, themed "Developing New Quality Productive Forces to Build a New Industry Ecosystem," invited representative enterprises from upstream and downstream of the supply chain to engage in in-depth exchanges and discussions on policies, technologies, products, markets, brands, and services closely related to the development of new quality productive forces in the lighting industry. Over the past year, industry enterprises have actively cultivated new quality productive forces through technological, managerial, and business model innovations. Tospo Lighting collaborated with emerging automotive brands to expand its automotive business segment and gain new market share; Foshan Lighting endowed its "time-honored brand" with the new meaning of "future technology lighting" and proposed the "Technology Foshan Lighting" development strategy; Unilumin Group planned an industrial layout of "walking with light displays," and Ledis's case of "smart lighting building nighttime city brand image" was selected as a typical case in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "Digital Three Products" application scenarios; Xuyu Optoelectronics and Xiamen Tongshi Da were listed in the Science and Technology Progress Award of the China National Light Industry Council for their achievements in key technologies for smart agriculture; 12 lighting-related patents were shortlisted for the "25th China Patent Award," mainly involving mid-to-upstream patents such as light-emitting device manufacturing processes and power supply technologies. In addition, enterprises actively implemented lean production management, optimized supply chain processes, achieved cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and practiced high-quality development through intelligent transformation and digitalization.

The overseas market has always been an important component of the sustained development of China's lighting industry. China's foreign trade in lighting products has basically maintained an annual export volume of around USD 55 billion, accounting for more than 60% of the industry's total sales. Since 2024, markets along the "Belt and Road" have become a new growth point for lighting exports. In the first 11 months, China's exports of lighting products to countries along the "Belt and Road" reached approximately USD 22.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2%, accounting for 45% of China's total lighting product exports. Facing potential risks brought by changes in the global political and economic landscape, lighting companies have risen to the challenge, deeply participating in a new round of adjustments in the international market, increasing efforts to explore overseas markets and channels, accelerating the transition from product exports to brand, design, manufacturing, and service exports, and firmly moving from "going out" to a deeper level of "going in." Key enterprises such as OPPLE, Yangming Lighting, Tospo Lighting, MLS / MLS Co., Ltd., Star Auto Lights, Inventronics, and Huayi Lighting have tapped into the potential of overseas development by acquiring well-known overseas companies, cultivating international brands, establishing overseas R&D centers, investing in overseas factories, and participating in overseas project construction. High-quality supply chain enterprises such as Everfine, Huapu Yongming, Hangzhou Yongdian, Dongling Power, Songsheng Shares, Hengkun Optoelectronics, Zhuoyue Huayu, and Nanjing Likong have enhanced their competitiveness in the global supply chain system by actively participating in overseas exhibitions. More processing and manufacturing enterprises have strengthened their ability to resist risks from overseas trade orders by setting up factories in Southeast Asia, South America, and other regions.

It truly reflects the fierce competition in the lighting industry, with companies trapped in a vicious cycle of low-price competition. In the Lighting Industry Sentiment Index released by the China National Light Industry Council, the profit sentiment index entered the "overcooling zone" in August. Although the downward trend began to slow down in October, "losses" have become a prominent phenomenon in 2024. According to incomplete statistics, the number of loss-making enterprises above designated size in China exceeded 1,000 in the first 10 months, with the loss amount increasing by over 10% year-on-year (YoY), and profits declining by nearly 5%. More than half of the listed companies saw a decline in net profit in the first three quarters. Facing this dilemma, industry companies are actively reflecting. At the 10th Executive Director Meeting of the 9th Council of the China Lighting Association, participating representatives discussed and believed that "price wars" are tantamount to self-destruction, but "competing on technology" should be advocated. Companies should build unique technological advantages and focus on differentiated development. "Competing on technology" has spurred "micro-innovations": at domestic and international lighting exhibitions in 2024, we saw "micro-innovation" products such as indoor luminaires that improve acoustic environments, wireless-powered underwater lighting products for easy maintenance, 25mm small-aperture downlights, and 5mm ultra-narrow magnetic tracks receiving widespread attention from customers and the industry; luminaires adopting China's proprietary offline voice control technology exploded in the Japanese disaster prevention market; Cidon Lighting released new commercial lighting products, effectively solving the pain points of dimming needs in large-space multi-functional application scenarios through innovative technologies such as internal electrical transmission architecture, digital optical zoom systems for electronic control, and automatic light tracking control systems. Its innovative perspective and problem-solving capabilities demonstrate the company's deep accumulation in focusing on professional application scenarios for a long time.

"Two New" refers to large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in. In March, the State Council issued the "Action Plan for Promoting Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-In," clearly stating that "promoting large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in is an important measure to accelerate the construction of a new development pattern and promote high-quality development," and made specific arrangements for implementing four major actions: equipment renewal, consumer goods trade-in, recycling and circular utilization, and standard improvement. The National Development and Reform Commission, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance and other departments, issued the "Energy Efficiency Advanced Level, Energy Saving Level and Access Level for Key Energy-Using Product Equipment (2024 Edition)," specifying energy efficiency level indicators for four lighting appliance products including LED panel lights, LED downlights, and LED luminaires for road and tunnel lighting, as well as related product promotion policies, playing an important role in guiding green consumption of lighting in production and living areas. In July, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued "Several Measures to Strengthen Support for Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-In," arranging about 300 billion yuan of ultra-long-term special treasury bond funds to continuously promote the implementation and effectiveness of the "Two New" policy. In the 11th batch of the "Guide for Upgraded and Innovative Consumer Goods" of the light industry, six lighting products from six companies including NVC / NVC Lighting, Tospo Lighting, and Panasonic were selected, providing product guarantees for promoting lighting consumption. Currently, pilot schemes for lighting product trade-ins have been launched in Jiangsu, Shanghai, Guangdong and other places. Data on the national economy for November released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that national fixed asset investment grew steadily; total retail sales of consumer goods reached 4,376.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year (YoY) increase of 3.0%; month-on-month growth was 0.16%, among which retail sales of building and decoration materials increased by 2.9%. The December work conference of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development clearly proposed to "vigorously implement urban renewal" in 2025. According to incomplete statistics, the total length of urban roads in China is nearly 600,000 kilometers, the urban lighting market capacity is about 200 billion yuan, and the road lighting market capacity is about 80 billion yuan. The vigorous implementation of urban renewal work will bring greater development potential for landscape and road lighting.

With advances in fundamental lighting theories such as photobiological effects, technical applications of artificial lighting concerning human visual health and emotional impact are continuously achieving breakthroughs. This has profoundly influenced technological innovation across the entire industry chain—including LED chip R&D, spectrum modulation, product design, R&D, and manufacturing—as well as market development in multiple niche sectors such as education, medical care and wellness, and lighting for special work environments. An increasing number of lighting designers are focusing on creating emotion-congruent atmospheres tailored to specific scenarios through color, light and shadow, and intelligent control, thereby delivering emotional value and ushering in an era of emotionally engaged lighting experiences. In 2024, GB/T 44441-2024 "Test Method for Visual Health Comfort of LED Lighting Products" was released, and the national standard "Dosage of Non-Visual Biological Effects of Light on the Human Eye" passed review. This series of standardization achievements related to light health provides a standardized basis for the evaluation and quantitative application of healthy lighting, enabling quantitative assessment and algorithm design for "light health." In April, CCTV reported on the application of a health-oriented human-factor healing cabin based on lighting technology at an Antarctic scientific research base. Led by Professor Hao Luoxi, the project was jointly undertaken by OPPLE, Shanghai Yaming, Qiyi Lighting, and other enterprises and research institutes, representing a scientifically sound and effective exploration of healthy lighting theory that attracted widespread attention from all sectors of society. The golden-yellow light technology with independent intellectual property rights in China, spearheaded by Academician Jiang Fengyi, partnered with Shenzhen Sunflower Intelligent Technology to co-create blue-light-free healthy sleep lamps, proactively identifying and serving the consumption needs of specific groups and creating new consumer markets. NVC Lighting launched its "Companion Adaptive Light Technology," while OPPLE introduced a series of products applying SDL smart spectrum technology. These product launches centered on light health are setting new trends in the lighting market.

Concepts such as "light recipes" and "spectrum modulation" continued to gain popularity this year. They are not only relevant to healthy lighting but also represent the forefront of technological innovation, finding applications in niche sectors such as plant growth, automotive, color customization, and special-purpose lighting. Spectral technology implementations by companies like ams OSRAM, Xuyu Optoelectronics, Jinhuangguang, MLS / MLS Co., Ltd., and Zhuosheng Lighting are maturing, with their value increasingly recognized by users. As the origin of innovation in the lighting industry, every breakthrough in spectrum technology expands the boundaries of lighting applications and injects new vitality into industry development. Although the concept of "full spectrum" has entered the lighting market and triggered a new wave of market growth, scientific evaluation of the relationship between "full spectrum" and healthy light, along with related standardization efforts, is still in its early stages, making it a new hotspot in technological innovation and standardization. In 2024, a series of related national standards (mandatory / recommended), including "Specification for Evaluation of Sun-like Spectrum", "Standard Test Method for Evaluating Spectral Quality of Daylight Simulators for Visual Assessment and Color Measurement", and "Evaluation Method for Color Rendering Quality of White Light Sources", were proposed or initiated, providing further technical support for the scientific assessment of spectra.

As the core of next-generation information technology, AI (Artificial Intelligence) has demonstrated immense application potential and value in supply chain optimization, intelligent manufacturing, and other areas, becoming a key driver for meeting consumer demands and leading industrial innovation. The lighting industry is also actively applying AI technology to accelerate its further integration with the sector. In 2024, training on AIGC combined with lighting design sparked a热潮 (wave of enthusiasm) in the industry. The China Association of Lighting Industry and multiple professional committees and local associations organized several "AIGC Lighting Design Workshops" through online and offline methods, helping lighting designers update their knowledge structure regarding the combination of AI technology and lighting design, while also expanding new directions for combining AIGC with luminaire design. Furthermore, Mini/Micro LED products and LED+AI innovative applications such as virtual production and digital humans continue to develop in the field of cultural tourism and landscape lighting. At major urban nightscape lighting events in 2024, such as the Shanghai International Light Festival, Guangzhou International Light Festival, and Beijing Chaoyang International Light Festival, "AI + Light and Shadow Art" has become an important technical means for various regions to create unique, eye-catching "new landmarks of the night-time economy."

High efficiency and energy saving have driven the rapid development of the lighting industry over the past two decades, with green and low-carbon practices becoming key points for the next round of growth. With global attention on low-carbon sustainable development and the widespread dissemination of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) concepts, the lighting industry is placing increasing emphasis on product technology and corporate responsibility and actions in carbon reduction. In 2024, Huapu Yongming released a modular LED street light architecture featuring distributed energy storage and remote communication control components, exploring another technical path to carbon neutrality for road lighting products beyond "energy saving"; MLS Co., Ltd. actively promoted the application of recycled materials in light bulb manufacturing, effectively reducing plastic waste generation, lowering energy consumption and carbon emissions; domestic and international enterprises represented by Signify, Aldo, and NVC Lighting have all made carbon management and ESG concepts important aspects of their corporate operations. National standards such as "Methodology for Carbon Footprint Accounting of Lighting Products" and "General Technical Specifications for Solar Photovoltaic Lighting Devices" have entered the final stage of standard development, while China Lighting Association group standards such as "Product Carbon Footprint - Product Category Rules - Luminaire", "Product Carbon Footprint - Product Category Rules - Light Source", and "Product Carbon Footprint - Product Category Rules - Light Source Control Device" are also under development. These efforts will provide clear accounting rules and methods for the full lifecycle carbon emissions of lighting products, offering the industry scientific and standardized carbon footprint management tools.