TrendForce Estimates 2015 LED Industrial Lighting Market to Reach US$2.366B due to Maturing Technology and Right Prices

LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, reports that industrial lighting has a decisive weight in the entire lighting market. LEDinside has released its latest “1Q15 Silver Member Market Report - Industrial Lighting and High Bay Markets”, which shows an intense level of price competition in the market for LED replacement lighting products, including LED light bulbs and light tubes sold in retail stores. More and more LED lighting vendors hope to capitalize on the situation by entering the industrial lighting sector. Based on LEDinside’s forecast, LED industrial lighting market scale will be worth US$2.366 billion in 2015 and by 2018 the scale will reach US$3.935 billion. 

LEDinside’s Assistant Research Manager Joanne Wu said compared with home lighting products, industrial lighting products operate under much longer period, so switching to the energy-saving LED technology in the latter application is more cost-effective. As a result, LED high and low bay lighting fixtures have become more attractive for industrial lighting users for replacement purposes. Furthermore, LED lighting products have seen additional increases in performance and decreases in price. These improvements, together with industrial lighting products’ high profit margins, have made industrial application the most competitive market for LED package and LED luminaire companies for the 2015-2016 period. 

Among different fixture types, LED high/low bay lighting products are the largest in terms of market share. This category is further subdivided into mining and general application (or for uses in warehouses, gyms, and other indoor settings). Thus, LED high/low bay lights are now a major focus in the development of industrial lighting market. Without the need to warm up, LED lights are instantly bright the moment it is switched on and instantly goes dim at switch-off. This advantage, plus LED’s long lifespan, reduce maintenance costs significantly. Therefore, LED is more cost-effective than HID under long and continuous usage. 

It is expected 80W-250W LED high/low bay light products will become mainstream in the market as improvements are made to the LED technology itself and to thermal dissipation. Current 80W-250W LED high/low bay lights have around 10,000lm-30,000lm in terms of luminous flux as well as 275-300lx in terms of illuminance. Pricing strategies for high/low bay lights vary according to products lines and market regions as these products have yet to be standardized. Chinese manufacturers tend to have lower product prices and fewer product lines. Hence, prices in the Chinese market only show minor price fluctuations. 

Leaders in LED industrial lighting include American manufacturers such as GE Lighting, CREE, and Cooper Lighting have performed well in the market, as well as their Japanese counterparts IWASAKI and Toshiba, and Chinese LED manufacturer Ocean’s King Lighting. Among these competitors, CREE has made advances with high-power LEDs that save costs and simplify product designs. GE Lighting by contrast focuses on LED module adoption and thermal dissipation design. Their luminaires can have a life of up to 100,000 hours.