China Demands Less Than 30K LED Street Lights in 2009

---

---

According to the statistics of industry research institute LEDinside, China’s overall demand for LED street lights in 2009 is around 30 thousand units, far less than the number the market had expected at the beginning of 2009. The main reason is that street light standards have not been established, and the quality and quantity of LED street lights still have yet to stand the test of time. As a result, the aspect which the government’s policy supports is starting to change from outdoor lighting to indoor lighting.

LEDinside Research Director, Roger Chu, indicated, according to LEDinside’s survey of 30 cities in China, the total demand is nearly 164,000 LED lamps. Based on recent statistics, China's demand for LED lights is under 200,000 lamps. However, there are other cities in China that also have demand for LED lamps, coupled with the export of LED lamps by enterprises, total demand for LED lamps is estimated at approximately 200,000 to 300,000 units.
 

Of the 21 cities in China’s project, “Ten Thousand LED lights in Ten Cities", only Weifang, Chongqing, and Baoding explicitly proposed to install over 10,000 LED lights. Other cities have not made any clear demands for the quantity of LED lights; even if they do, it will be less than 10000 LED lights. In these 21 cities, most of them are only meant to establish pilot demonstration, which only require a smaller quantity of lamps.

According to LEDinside, these 21 cities demand for around 130,000 LED lights in 2009, but the actual installation may be below 130,000 lamps. China's demand for LED lights in 2009 is far lower the estimate of 800,000 to 1,200,000 units.

Chu added that some metropolises, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, are relatively discreet about promoting LED lights. On the one hand, LED lights must undergo actual tests before large-scale promotion, and the feasible industrial standards must set up. On the other hand, the Chinese government hopes to promote local development of LED industry through the street light demonstration projects. Therefore, they are not in a haste of replacing the LED street lights, and expects that widespread adoption of LED lights will only take place after 2012.