Riding the wave, forging a new chapter! Ling Yingming outlines a new development path for Zhejiang’s lighting industry, with four key Q&As.

On March 23, the first online salon of the “Zhejiang Light” series for 2026 was successfully held, hosted by the Zhejiang Lighting Appliance Association and organized by China Light Network · Ming Classroom.

This salon specially invited Mr. Ling Yingming, Honorary Chairman of the Board and Party Branch Secretary of the Zhejiang Lighting Appliance Association, to deliver an in-depth presentation titled “Spurring Ahead to Usher in a New Future for Lighting — Analysis of the Current Situation and Future Outlook for Zhejiang’s Lighting Appliance Industry”, systematically reviewing for industry peers the development status, core characteristics, and existing issues of Zhejiang’s lighting industry, while also pointing out future transformation directions.

Guest Speaker: Ling Yingming

The key takeaways from the salon have been compiled for you—come check them out now~~~

I. Industry Status Quo:

Pressured Yet Steady, Core Foundations Solid

In 2025, affected by the global economic downturn and weak demand, China’s lighting industry as a whole faced numerous uncertainties. During his presentation, Chairman Ling Yingming released core operational data for Zhejiang’s lighting sector:

Overall Scale: In 2025, Zhejiang’s lighting industry achieved cumulative export sales of RMB 80.5 billion, down 1.61% year-on-year; domestic sales reached RMB 22 billion, down 20% YoY;

Among these, large-scale enterprises recorded export delivery value of RMB 25.359 billion, down 7.1% YoY.

Segmented Categories: In 2025, Zhejiang’s electric light source manufacturing sector posted cumulative export delivery value of RMB 7.07 billion, down 8.52% YoY;

In 2025, Zhejiang’s lighting luminaire manufacturing sector achieved cumulative export delivery value of RMB 8.775 billion, down 5.17% YoY;

In 2025, Zhejiang’s smart lighting appliance manufacturing sector recorded cumulative export delivery value of RMB 6.537 billion, down 5.4% YoY;

In 2025, Zhejiang’s lamp electrical accessories and other lighting appliance manufacturing sector reported cumulative export delivery value of RMB 2.469 billion, down 12.44% YoY.

In 2025, Zhejiang’s stage and venue lighting manufacturing sector achieved cumulative export delivery value of RMB 509 million, down 13.31% YoY.

National Share: In 2025, China’s lighting industry recorded cumulative export delivery value of RMB 100.136 billion, down 4.28% YoY. The top five regions by export delivery value were Guangdong Province, Zhejiang Province, Jiangsu, Fujian, and Jiangxi. Guangdong accounted for 54.99%, while Zhejiang accounted for 25.32%; together, these two provinces represented over 80% of national exports, making them the two core hubs of China’s lighting industry.

Among Zhejiang’s 23 consumer goods categories, the lighting industry has leapt from 20th place five years ago to 7th place in export rankings, accounting for 5.12% of the province’s total consumer goods export delivery value.

Export Performance: In 2025, Zhejiang’s lighting industry generated US$ 11.487 billion in exports, up 1.61% from 2024 but slightly below the five-year peak of US$ 12.1 billion.

• Export Markets are primarily concentrated in North America (U.S. share 16.15%), Europe, Southeast Asia, and South America. The U.S. market share declined from its previous 21% to 16.15%, while markets such as Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, and Thailand posted positive growth, demonstrating significant success in expanding into emerging markets.

• By export product category: lighting luminaires accounted for US$ 8.599 billion (74.86%) with 0.3% YoY growth; electric light sources (Light bulbs) totaled US$ 1.629 billion (14.18%) with -9.87% YoY; self-powered lighting appliances and parts reached US$ 1.238 billion (10.78%) with -2.58% YoY; ballasts for discharge lamps or tubes amounted to US$ 0.02 billion (0.18%) with -10.51% YoY.

II. Industry Characteristics:

Cluster Development, Transformation and Quality Upgrading

Chairman Ling Yingming noted that as a major province for downstream lighting appliance manufacturing, Zhejiang faces weak upstream industrial layout but maintains a stable industry foundation, developing distinct characteristics:

1. Prominent Clusterization: The province has formed six major industrial clusters in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Jinhua, Jiaxing, and Wenzhou. Enterprises have largely transitioned to LED semiconductor lighting, with expanding output scales, diversified product lines, and distinctive strengths in emerging fields like smart and low-carbon lighting.

2. Steady Improvement in Development Quality: Corporate management is shifting from extensive to refined approaches, actively implementing the “Improve Quality, Expand Variety, Build Brands” strategy, leveraging big data management to enhance operational efficiency, and driving high-quality industry development.

3. Accelerated Clearance of Backward Capacity: Traditional lighting firms are gradually exiting the market through closures, transfers, and cross-industry expansion during their transformation process. This has reduced the number of enterprises, steadily increased industry concentration, and allowed premium resources to accumulate among leading companies.

III. Existing Issues:

Triple Pressures Challenge Industry Growth

During his presentation, Chairman Ling Yingming objectively analyzed the core challenges currently facing Zhejiang’s lighting industry:

1. Intensified Market Competition: The replacement of traditional lighting with LED lighting is essentially complete. China’s manufacturing supply capacity far exceeds global demand, resulting in severe oversupply of functional lighting products. Meanwhile, impacted by factors such as Sino-U.S. trade tensions, overseas market expansion has stalled, causing competition to spread from domestic to global arenas, creating a severe “involution” situation.

2. Shrinking Downstream Demand: Urban renewal and rural revitalization efforts have fallen short of expectations. Urban illumination and landscape lighting projects have significantly decreased, nighttime economy development remains sluggish, and engineering-focused lighting companies face the predicament of having “no work to do.” Although the engineering segment accounts for only a small portion of Zhejiang’s overall lighting output value, it remains an important component of the industry ecosystem.

3. Escalating Business Pressure: Over 50% of manufacturing enterprises report year-on-year performance declines, with projected losses exceeding 30% across the industry. Many companies are struggling to survive through layoffs, cost-cutting, and seeking mergers or restructuring.

Referring to the recently concluded Frankfurt International Lighting Fair, Chairman Ling Yingming specifically pointed out that although China’s lighting industry has reached internationally advanced manufacturing capabilities, gaps remain in areas such as original innovation, craftsmanship, precision manufacturing, and intellectual property protection. Products still rely mainly on functional competition, with insufficient exploration of emotional and cultural value. A shortage of high-end professionals in industrial design and electronic engineering further constrains industrial upgrading.

IV. Future Outlook:

Three Major Directions to Break the Impasse and Drive Growth

Looking ahead to 2026, marking the start of the “15th Five-Year Plan,” Chairman Ling Yingming emphasized that lighting, as an enduring necessity of daily life, retains its essential nature. China’s lighting industry continues to enjoy scale advantages and solid fundamentals. The industry must maintain firm confidence in development and pursue transformation along three key axes:

(I) Anchoring Three Core Trends and Seizing Technological Upgrade Dividends

Smart, Low-Carbon, Healthy are the three core directions driving the next wave of growth in the lighting industry:

• Smart Lighting: Focus on breakthroughs in four key technical areas—smart applications, system integration, flexible modules, and advanced optics—to deeply integrate AI technology with lighting products, upgrading from single-product manufacturing toward solution-based and system services.

• Healthy Lighting: Concentrate on functions such as circadian rhythm lighting and sterilization/disinfection, expanding into commercial, industrial, agricultural, and specialized lighting segments. Pay particular attention to China’s aging trend by developing age-friendly lighting products and systems to meet the needs of the growing elderly care industry.

• Low-Carbon Lighting: Vigorously develop solar and other renewable energy-powered lighting products. Low-carbon labeling will become a passport for future products entering European and even global markets.

(II) Strengthening Brand and Service Capabilities to Enhance Added Value

Currently, most Zhejiang lighting enterprises operate under OEM models, with ODM and private label shares remaining low, leading to squeezed product added value by branding and channel margins. Moving forward, the industry must strengthen brand image building, boost product awareness and reputation, extend the scope from pure manufacturing to “Manufacturing + Services,” prioritize customer experience and after-sales service, and continuously increase R&D investment to meet evolving market demands.

(III) Optimizing Market Strategies and Diversifying Layouts to Disperse Risk

• Consolidate Existing Core Markets, while actively expanding into emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Formulate localized operating strategies to address headwinds in the North American market.

• Deeply Tap Into Existing Asset Retrofit Needs, focusing on the lighting upgrade and renovation market for existing buildings in China and developed regions. Provide systematic energy-saving and smart retrofit solutions, positioning the existing market as a crucial pillar of enterprise services.

• Promote Industry Chain Integration to Reduce Internal Friction. Currently, Zhejiang hosts over 3,800 lighting enterprises with combined output value exceeding RMB 110 billion. However, average enterprise size remains small, and internal friction within the industry is severe.

Chairman Ling Yingming revealed that the Zhejiang Lighting Appliance Association recently launched an initiative advocating “opposition to involution, mutual sharing, and integrated development,” encouraging enterprises to strengthen cooperation, pursue mergers and acquisitions, form industry alliances to optimize resource allocation, allow leading enterprises to expand scale through acquisitions, and enable SMEs to focus on upstream and downstream supporting collaborations, jointly enhancing overall industry productivity and competitiveness.

Interactive Q&A

During the interactive Q&A session, Chairman Ling Yingming provided detailed answers to audience concerns:

1. What unique characteristics does each of Zhejiang’s six major lighting production zones possess, and how will they shape future development?

Teacher Ling Yingming explained that the six industrial clusters each have distinct focuses and complementary roles, collectively forming the core competitive edge of Zhejiang’s downstream lighting manufacturing:

• Ningbo Zone: Boasts the largest traditional manufacturing base, with annual GDP around RMB 40 billion. Primarily composed of export-oriented manufacturers, it enjoys a strong industrial foundation.

• Hangzhou Zone: Leveraging advantages in the internet industry, it focuses on developing emerging fields like smart lighting and AI+lighting. Companies such as Huapu Yongming and Fangda Zhikong have deeply integrated AI technologies, ensuring strong resilience and significant future potential.

• Shaoxing Zone: Led by enterprises like Sunshine Lighting, Chenhui, Guangbao, and Meike, it exhibits clear export orientation with a high proportion of OEM business.

• Jinhua (Yiwu) Zone: Home to enterprises like Debang Lighting, Mulinsen, and Huacan, it concentrates on commercial lighting, automotive lighting, and other sectors, with products distinctly tailored for the European market.

• Wenzhou (Taizhou) Zone: Specializes in niche segments, focusing on components, explosion-proof lights, festival lights, and other specialized lighting products, serving as an indispensable supporting link in the industry chain.

• Jiaxing Zone: Features diverse industrial characteristics and fosters synergistic complementarity with neighboring zones.

Together, these six zones constitute Zhejiang’s comprehensive downstream lighting industry chain. If midstream industrial shortcomings can be addressed in the future, overall manufacturing capabilities will be further enhanced.

2. How should we view the phenomenon of Zhejiang lighting enterprises relocating production capacity to Jiangxi and other regions?

Teacher Ling Yingming analyzed: Leading enterprises such as Sunshine Lighting, Debang Lighting, and Kaiyao Lighting have indeed established production facilities in Jiangxi, Anhui, and other areas. Some companies have also shifted operations overseas to Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, etc., primarily driven by considerations of cost control and customer demand. Additionally, favorable local government policies have played a significant role.

Notably, parent companies and headquarters of relocated enterprises remain based in Zhejiang, with core R&D and operational functions intact. Thus, Zhejiang’s position as the industry’s main base remains unchanged. Meanwhile, enterprises from Shanghai and other regions have also chosen Zhejiang due to adjustments in industrial planning.

3. What advantages does China’s lighting industry hold in global competition, and how can these be further enhanced going forward?

Teacher Ling Yingming pointed out: China’s most fundamental advantage lies in its powerful manufacturing capabilities, which lead globally in supply chain support, production efficiency, and response speed.

This was vividly demonstrated at the Frankfurt Fair. However, compared to the international top tier, China’s lighting industry still lags behind in industrial design and electronic engineering capabilities. Product humanization, health-conscious design, and scenario-specific customization all require improvement.

To transition from catching up to taking the lead, breakthroughs are needed in three core areas—intelligent application system integration, flexible modules, and optical technology—while emphasizing product reliability and safety. It is essential to deeply fuse lighting’s physical value with emotional and cultural value, creating a product system with international competitiveness.

4. What new prospects will AI technology bring to smart, low-carbon, and healthy lighting sectors?

The integration of AI technology with the lighting industry has entered a critical phase of development, with application prospects mainly falling into two broad directions: First, combining healthy lighting with the elderly care industry, addressing China’s aging society by integrating AI with lighting products to create adaptive assistive lighting solutions for nursing homes and home-based elderly care, aligning with national requirements outlined in the “15th Five-Year Plan” for elderly care development; Second, deep integration with urban lighting to support smart city construction.

To promote the practical application of AI in the lighting sector, the Zhejiang Lighting Appliance Association will timely launch relevant training courses on AI-lighting integration, inviting industry experts and university faculty to teach, cultivate specialized technical talent, and elevate the industry’s overall new quality productivity.

Conclusion

Spurring Ahead Together Toward a New Future for the Lighting Industry

At the conclusion of his presentation, Teacher Ling Yingming stated that the lighting industry is an essential sector for human life—a “perpetually rising sun that never sets”. China’s long-term economic fundamentals remain sound, and Zhejiang’s lighting industry continues to enjoy scale advantages and a solid core foundation.

Facing current difficulties, industry colleagues must maintain unwavering confidence and spur ahead, placing innovation at the core to drive comprehensive upgrades across enterprise technology, markets, and industries. At the same time, embrace AI technology to expand into healthy elderly care, smart cities, and other fields, fully realizing the emotional and cultural value of lighting products, and jointly ushering in a new future for the lighting industry.

The successful hosting of this “Zhejiang Light” online salon has clarified development pathways and built consensus among Zhejiang’s lighting industry peers.

Going forward, the Zhejiang Lighting Appliance Association and China Light Network · Ming Classroom will continue to roll out the “Zhejiang Light” salon series, bringing more cutting-edge industry insights and in-depth exchanges to help Zhejiang’s lighting appliance industry achieve high-quality development and let the light of Zhejiang shine across the world!

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Note: The content of this article is compiled from the recording of Teacher Ling Yingming’s presentation “Spurring Ahead to Usher in a New Future for Lighting — Analysis of the Current Situation and Future Outlook for Zhejiang’s Lighting Appliance Industry” delivered at Ming Classroom on March 23, 2026, and edited and published by Ming Classroom.

Click here for the course replay