In-depth analysis! Secretary-General Wang Zhuo breaks down the high-quality development of the lighting industry: overcoming key challenges and identifying new growth engines.

On January 9, 2026, Ms. Wang Zhuo, Secretary-General of the China Lighting Fixture Association, was a guest at the Mingren Online salon of the Guzhen Lighting Expo. Under the theme “Reflections on High-Quality Development in the Lighting Appliance Industry”, she shared in-depth insights across three key dimensions—industry status quo, developmental transformation, and future pathways—offering industry professionals a thought-provoking feast that combined policy perspective with practical guidance.

I. Facing the Current Situation:

Structural Transformation Hidden Within Downward Pressure

Secretary-General Wang Zhuo began by using the three keywords “downward pressure, structural change, and untapped growth drivers” to precisely summarize the current development trend of the lighting industry.

1. Ongoing Downward Pressure, Diverging Domestic and International Markets

From 2024 to 2025, the industry as a whole experienced a downward trajectory. In the first ten months of 2025, total profits of enterprises above designated size fell 16% year-on-year (YoY), while retail profit margins dipped below the national manufacturing average.

In terms of exports, cumulative exports reached US$45.2 billion in the first eleven months of 2025, down 10% YoY. The phenomenon of “involution outward” was pronounced, with unit prices for 70–80% of exported products trending downward. Exports to the U.S. continued to decline due to tariff impacts, but shipments to Belt and Road countries and African nations kept growing. High-value-added and new-energy-related products showed emerging export advantages, becoming new drivers of foreign trade growth.

2. Accelerated Structural Adjustment: LEDs Become the Dominant Force

In terms of product mix, LEDs have become the clear mainstream in the lighting industry. Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) under 30 watts were banned from production starting January 1, 2026, marking the industry’s full transition into the LED era. The ratio of light sources to luminaires has also shifted, with the share of luminaire products steadily rising, though high-value offerings remain relatively scarce.

3. Untapped Growth Drivers: Focus on Green and Sustainable Development

Over the past 30 years, rapid industry growth stemmed from two efficiency revolutions: energy-saving lamps replacing incandescent bulbs, and LEDs replacing energy-saving lamps. Looking ahead, light health, intelligent technologies, non-visual applications, and green, low-carbon sustainable development will serve as new engines of growth, though they have yet to generate large-scale market pull effects.

II. Insights into Change:

New Industry Trends Under High-Quality Development Goals

Guided by high-quality development objectives, the lighting industry is undergoing profound, all-around transformation. Secretary-General Wang Zhuo interpreted these shifts across five major dimensions.

1. Shift in Philosophy: From Quantity Growth to Value Creation

The concepts of sustainability and green development have taken root, while dual-carbon targets drive adjustments in the energy structure, directly influencing lighting product technology roadmaps and material choices. The industry’s growth model is transitioning from rapid expansion to high quality, no longer solely pursuing quantitative gains, but instead focusing on enhancing human life, survival, and development quality, emphasizing balance between time and space.

2. Policy Shifts: Multi-Dimensional Support for Industry Upgrading

Nationwide, intensive policies have been rolled out covering green product certification, boosting domestic demand (such as building better homes and promoting cultural & tourism consumption), curbing involution (addressing price chaos and regulating e-commerce platforms), and digital transformation—all setting directions for high-quality industry development. Notably, the release of policies related to green product consumption has provided clear guidance and policy dividends for the industry’s green transition.

3. Technological Shifts: From Product Manufacturing to Extended Services

The industry is transitioning from “energy saving” to “comfort,” from “individual products” to “systems,” and from “manufacturing” to “services.” Products must deliver superior performance, richer functionality, and higher levels of intelligence. According to submission trends in papers published in the journal “China Lighting Appliances,” from 2023 to 2024, research related to intelligent lighting, green low-carbon initiatives, and visual health increased significantly, making lighting design and applications hotspots for innovation—reflecting the industry’s emphasis on cross-sector integration and user experience.

4. Market Shifts: Upgraded Demand and Diversified Consumption

Consumers’ demands for energy efficiency, sustainability, and cross-industry solutions are growing stronger, with consumer segments showing increasingly precise characteristics: special attention is being paid to the needs of the elderly and children, while niche scenarios like esports lighting for young people are rapidly emerging. Meanwhile, online transactions dominate, and extended product lifespans lengthen consumption cycles, compelling companies to restructure marketing models and product innovation strategies.

5. Production Shifts: Customization, Digitalization, and Green Practices

Production methods are evolving toward customization, digitalization, and greening, placing entirely new demands on enterprises’ production organization capabilities, equipment standards, and personnel management—making this a critical focus for corporate transformation.

III. Breaking the Impasse: Pathways for Future High-Quality Industry Development

Facing the current state of the industry and its transformative trends, Secretary-General Wang Zhuo proposed a series of reflections and recommendations aimed at high-quality development.

1. Reassess the Value of Light and Escape Low-Price Competition

Secretary-General Wang Zhuo emphasized that light, as vital to survival as water and air, remains severely undervalued. Consumers are willing to pay premium prices for water purifiers and air purifiers, yet they have not yet developed a consumer mindset of “paying for good light”. The industry must work together to convert the value of healthy and intelligent lighting into market premiums, thus breaking free from the trap of low-price competition.

2. Focus on Five Key Development Priorities to Define Future Direction

Based on the draft outline of the industry’s “15th Five-Year Plan,” Secretary-General Wang Zhuo outlined core tasks for the next five years:

• Promote High-End Industrial Upgrading: Improve the science and technology innovation system to drive leaps in technological capabilities; accelerate standard optimization to elevate product quality; cultivate national brands to advance industrial upgrading;

• Advance Digital and Intelligent Transformation: Speed up manufacturing intelligence and upgrade production capabilities; strengthen end-to-end digital collaboration to modernize the supply chain; deepen AI applications to reshape competitive advantages;

• Guide Enterprises Toward Green Development: Promote green design and develop circular economies; advance green manufacturing for comprehensive ecological transformation; expand green supply to stimulate green consumption;

• Serve Specialized Market Needs: Focus on deep-sea, aerospace, and other strategic sectors; expand demand in cultural, tourism, and sports markets; empower professional lighting fields to improve quality and efficiency; ensure public safety and health;

• Build a Healthy Industry Ecosystem: Expand product offerings meeting health-oriented demands; adjust industry order to promote ecological health;

• Seize Global Opportunities for Internationalization: Enhance cross-border resource integration capabilities; accelerate foreign trade export transformation and upgrading; explore diversified international markets.

3. Seize Internationalization Opportunities to Drive Foreign Trade Transformation

Enterprises are encouraged to enhance cross-border resource integration, shifting foreign trade from “product export” to “brand export” and “service export,” while expanding diversified international markets. The association will establish more platforms for international exchange to help companies enter emerging markets such as Central Asia.

4. Association Empowerment: Supporting the Building of Diverse Service Platforms

To assist enterprises in their transformation, the association will continue organizing a series of activities:

In March, it will launch the China International Lighting Fixture Design Competition; in April, it will host the China Road Lighting Forum in Hangzhou; in May, it will organize participation in exhibitions in Central Asian regions. At the same time, it will regularly conduct talent-development programs such as lighting designer training and AIGC design workshops. Through services including standard-setting, technology promotion, and international matchmaking, the association aims to help the industry build a new ecosystem characterized by “innovation-led progress, digital transformation, health-oriented demand, and diversified development.”

Interactive Q&A

During the interactive Q&A session, Secretary-General Wang addressed everyone’s concerns one by one, offering substantial insights:

1. What measures has the association taken to upgrade industry standards and regulate market order?

Secretary-General Wang Zhuo stated that the association will rely on a dual-standard supply mechanism of “government leadership + market autonomy,” focusing on developing standards around green low-carbon initiatives, healthy lighting, intelligent lighting, and cross-industry applications, accelerating the translation of scientific and technological achievements into standards (e.g., the group standard for offline voice-controlled lighting technology has already been implemented). Simultaneously, the association is expediting standard-setting in emerging fields like healthy and intelligent lighting, refining service-oriented standards to regulate market order through standardization, and helping enterprises align with catalogs of innovative, upgraded consumer goods.

2. What is the biggest bottleneck enterprises face during high-quality development transformation?

Secretary-General Wang pointed out that the primary challenge for SMEs is “balancing immediate survival with future development”: Overcapacity in the low-end segment leads to cutthroat competition, forcing companies into short-term gain-driven battles and hindering long-term R&D investments; additionally, there are difficulties securing funding for technological innovation and insufficient reserves of high-end multidisciplinary talent.

The key to breaking this impasse lies in making strategic choices—either deeply cultivating the industry by increasing investment in hard-core areas like material innovation and foundational processes to build irreplaceable core competitiveness (for example, Longdewangsi’s use of recycled-material lamps successfully earned inclusion in the green transformation product catalog, serving as a prime case of material innovation), or timely pivoting to exit inefficient competition.

Conclusion

The high-quality transformation of the lighting industry presents both challenges and opportunities. Only by staying true to the spirit of innovation, focusing on value creation, and embracing policy guidance and technological change can we seize the initiative amid industry upheaval.

Note: This article is compiled from the recording of Secretary-General Wang Zhuo’s thematic sharing titled “Reflections on High-Quality Development in the Lighting Appliance Industry” delivered on January 9, 2026, at Ming Classroom, and published by Ming Classroom.

Click here for the course replay