China LED Industry Roadmap: From Automotive Lighting to Furniture Lighting, etc.

　　Who would have thought that the LED lighting industry could form today's market scale, with its initial start being a fortunate accident? It is reported that LED lighting first appeared in the small commodity market of Ningbo in 2003. Afterwards, Audi's pioneering application of LED in automobile tail lights inspired everyone. Liu Qiyan, Deputy Director of the Research Office of the General Office of the Ministry of Science and Technology, described LED as above, which is quite similar to the path taken by the domestic VCD industry at that time.

　　The development of the industry has benefited from the market, and the invisible hand has pushed it to form a huge application market today. According to insiders, under the plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology, among the major science and technology projects during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, two are related to the promotion and application of LED scientific and technological achievements.

　　Market demand has driven LED into mainstream adoption, and in terms of the promotion and application of scientific and technological achievements, the Ministry of Science and Technology has played a huge role in promoting this. The "Ten Cities, Ten Thousand Lamps" semiconductor lighting application project that people are familiar with was promoted and implemented by the Ministry of Science and Technology starting in 2009. The project is currently being piloted in 21 cities including Tianjin, Xi'an, and Xiamen. According to the plans of each city, the number of LED street lights installed this year will reach 1.12 million.

　　Wang Fengchi, Chairman of Baoding Dazheng Solar Optoelectronic Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd., stated that the "Ten Cities, Ten Thousand Lamps" project holds positive and significant meaning for the development of the semiconductor lighting industry. First, it clarifies that semiconductor lighting will serve as an effective measure for energy conservation and emission reduction. Second, the government vigorously promotes it while local authorities actively deploy it. Government investment in pilot programs stimulates intra-regional and inter-regional competition within the industry, promotes industrial innovation and development, drives market demand for semiconductor lighting, effectively advances the development of semiconductor lighting in China, raises the localization rate of semiconductor lighting products, and drives the upgrading of related industries.

　　Currently, the LED industry is in a period of rapid growth. Following the establishment of 7 semiconductor lighting industry bases in Dalian, Yangzhou, Shanghai, Nanchang, Shenzhen, Xiamen, and Shijiazhuang, an additional 6 cities—Tianjin, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Dongguan, Xi'an, and Ningbo—have successively been approved as semiconductor lighting industry bases. At the same time, many local governments have successively enacted a series of regulations and introduced policies to support the development of local LED industries. China's LED industry is "blooming everywhere," basically forming four main LED industry regions: the Bohai Rim region, the Pearl River Delta region, the Yangtze River Delta region, and the Jiangxi-Fujian region.

　　Zhang Ren, Secretary-General of the Residential Decoration and Renovation Committee of the China Building Decoration Association, stated that the market scale of China's LED industry will reach 500 billion yuan within the next 5 years. LED products have a wide range of application spaces, from automotive lighting to ordinary household lighting fixtures, and further to urban landscape lighting projects, street lighting, decorative lighting, and many other fields, with enormous market potential.

　　Currently, compared with the eastern LED industry regions, China's western regions are in a relatively backward state. However, the western regions have higher terrain and abundant solar green energy, giving them an advantage in utilizing photovoltaic power generation. In areas covering more than two-thirds of China's total land area, the annual sunshine hours exceed 2,200, with annual solar energy above 500 kJ per square meter. Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, and the Inner Mongolian Plateau are all regions rich in solar energy resources in terms of total radiation and sunshine hours.

　　At the China Green Lighting Industry Economic Model Seminar recently held, Xu Jinshou, Executive Vice Chairman of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, stated that according to data published by the Lighting R&D Industry Alliance in 2010, the total output value of China's LED lighting industry reached 120 billion yuan, of which LED applications accounted for 90 billion yuan, the total output value of LED chip packaging was 25 billion yuan, and the total output value of epitaxial chips was 5 billion yuan. He also pointed out that currently LED industry bases have been unable to form an industry cooperative development model, the industrial chain has not formed interaction, and from various provinces and cities to individual enterprises, everyone is fighting alone, and competition within the industry is very chaotic.

　　According to Xu Jinshou's view, the current LED industry landscape is like the "Spring and Autumn and Warring States" period, which is unfavorable for the long-term development of the industry. In this landscape, the push from local governments is a factor that cannot be ignored. What is even more worrying is that the current LED "go-all-out" pattern formed in various regions will eventually lead to price competition among enterprises, and signs of this have already emerged. Another factor that needs to attract the attention of industrial policy-making departments is that some new products showcased at various lighting exhibitions have already gathered dust.

　　"Under the current environment, relying solely on industrial policies from government authorities may not resolve some problems that exist and have emerged in the development of the green lighting industry. It must be regulated through national legislation," said Zhai Yong, Deputy Director of the Research Office of the Environmental and Resources Protection Committee of the National People's Congress.

　　With the growing shortage of global energy resources, the strategic high ground for future development lies in green technology and low-carbon technology, and the competition is extremely intense. International trade will adopt standards that measure products by their carbon content. Developing green and low-carbon technologies is the only way forward for our country. Relevant parties have called for legislation on the development of low-carbon and green technologies to be enacted as soon as possible.