Exclusive Interview with Tu Qiaoling, Secretary-General of the Zhongshan Semiconductor Lighting Industry Association | Annual Review (Part 7)

Please briefly summarize your view of the lighting industry in 2024.

Answer: Overview of the Lighting Industry in 2024:

Market Size:

The global lighting market size remains stable, with growth slowing down.

Product Technology:

LED lighting products continue to dominate the market thanks to their high efficiency and energy saving capabilities.

Smart lighting:

With the development of technologies such as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, smart lighting systems are receiving increasing attention.

Market demand:

1. Diversification and personalization: The growing personalized demand for lighting design from consumers and businesses has driven the development of customized lighting solutions.

2. Expansion of application scenarios: Smart lighting boasts rich application scenarios, covering residential, commercial, industrial, public and other sectors. Moreover, with the acceleration of urbanization and the increase in urban infrastructure construction, the demand for lighting products has been driven up.

Competitive Landscape:

The lighting market has numerous enterprises, with low industry concentration. Large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises coexist, resulting in fierce market competition.

Development Trends:

1. Green Energy Saving: With the continuous improvement of environmental protection awareness, green energy saving has become an important development direction for the luminaire industry.

2. Cross-industry Collaboration: The luminaire industry will undergo deep integration and cooperation with multiple fields such as smart homes and new energy.

What are the main challenges facing lighting companies in 2024?

Answer: In 2024, lighting companies face numerous challenges, mainly reflected in the following aspects:

In terms of market demand:

1. Weak domestic demand: Affected by the downturn in the real estate market, new housing construction has decreased, leading to a significant decline in related indoor lighting demand and a sharp drop in orders for lighting companies.

2. Weakening external demand: The global economy has entered a new cycle of stagflation and recession, with sluggish international market demand. Exports of lighting products face challenges, such as declining demand in traditional markets like North America and Europe to varying degrees.

Regarding the competitive landscape:

1. Intensified industry competition: The lighting market has numerous enterprises with low industry concentration. To compete for market share, companies have engaged in price wars, continuously compressing profit margins.

2. Relocation of the supply chain: Due to geopolitical pressures and cost factors, the outward spillover of the lighting supply chain has expanded. Some overseas customers tend to seek partners in their home countries or nearby regions, impacting the export business of Chinese lighting enterprises.

Regarding capital turnover:

1. Difficulty in collecting accounts receivable: A large number of project receivables cannot be collected on time, leading to difficulties in corporate cash flow and even broken capital chains. For example, in the field of nightscape / landscape lighting, some companies face extreme pressure from accounts receivable, severely affecting their normal operations.

2. Increased difficulty in financing: In an unstable economic environment, financial institutions impose stricter loan approval criteria for enterprises, making it more difficult for lighting companies to obtain financing and further highlighting financial pressures.

In terms of technological innovation:

1. High pressure on R&D investment: With the rapid development of emerging technologies such as smart lighting and full-spectrum lighting, lighting companies need to continuously increase R&D investment to enhance the technical content and competitiveness of their products, but this places higher demands on the company's financial strength and R&D capabilities.

2. Rapid technological updates: Technological innovation is changing rapidly, and the update cycle of lighting products is accelerating. If companies cannot keep up with technological developments in time and launch new products that meet market demands, they may face the risk of being eliminated by the market.

Cost Control Aspects:

1. Raw material price fluctuations: In recent years, the prices of raw materials in the lighting industry, such as chips, metals, and plastics, have continued to rise, increasing production costs for enterprises and squeezing profit margins.

2. Rising labor costs: With socio-economic development, labor costs continue to rise. The employment costs for lighting companies have increased accordingly, putting pressure on corporate cost control.

What development trends and dynamics do you think the lighting industry will present in 2025?

Answer: The lighting industry will show the following development trends in 2025:

In terms of technological innovation:

1. Higher luminous efficacy: Continuous advancements in LED chip technology further improve luminous efficacy; for instance, products with a color rendering index (CRI) of 90 are now commonly used.

2. Full Spectrum and Human Centric Lighting: Full-spectrum lighting technology continues to mature and is widely applied, better meeting the human eye's needs for different light colors and reducing visual fatigue.

3. Integration of Smart Lighting: Smart lighting systems achieve higher integration, enabling seamless connection and coordination of various devices and functions, such as linkage with smart home devices like curtains and air conditioners, to create a smarter and more comfortable light environment.

Product Design:

1. Personalization and customization: Consumer demand for personalized luminaires drives product customization, with companies offering more products featuring unique designs, sizes, colors, and functional combinations.

2. Artistic and affordable luxury: Luminaire design emphasizes artistic appeal and quality, with affordable luxury styles gaining popularity by integrating artistic elements with lighting functions to enhance spatial taste.

Market Demand:

1. Growth in the smart home market: The smart home market continues to expand, and smart luminaires, as an important component, see increasing market demand, with features such as whole-house dimming and intelligent scene switching being highly favored by consumers.

2. Stable demand in commercial and industrial sectors: Renovation upgrades in commercial spaces and lighting retrofits in industrial environments are driving steady growth in demand for high-quality, high-efficiency lighting products.

Application scenarios:

1. Expansion of smart streetlight functions: As important nodes in smart cities, smart streetlights continuously expand their capabilities. Beyond lighting, they integrate surveillance, communications, environmental monitoring, and other functions to achieve efficient utilization of urban resources.

2. Integration of light-and-shadow art with culture and tourism: The combination of light and shadow is widely applied in large-scale night events and cultural-tourism projects. Through projections, light shows, and other formats, it creates unique visual experiences that support rural revitalization and the development of the urban night-time economy.

Green energy saving:

1. Application of environmentally friendly materials and processes: The industry places greater emphasis on the use of eco-friendly materials and green manufacturing processes to reduce environmental impact, such as adopting recyclable materials and low-mercury or mercury-free processes.

2. Enhancement of energy saving certification and standards: Countries are continuously raising their requirements for energy saving certification and standards for lighting products, driving enterprises to research, develop, and produce more energy-efficient products.