TrendForce: Rebounding Market Demands Ease LED Bulb and Package Price Declines in September 2015

The LED market conditions have been fairly challenging for manufacturers in 2015 with notable price declines throughout July to August, but improving market conditions in September has slowed down price drops of certain LED bulb products, according to a latest report from LEDinside, a division of TrendForce.

Global average retail prices of 40W LED bulbs were down 0.9% to US $10.8, while 60W LED bulbs average retail prices slid 2.4% to US $14.5, according to the latest price report from LEDinside.

“Compared to the sharp price falls observed in July and August 2015, the recovering LED market in September has eased LED bulb and package price drop,” said Allen Yu, an analyst of LEDinside.

Rebounding LED market abates China’s LED package price fall 

Among mid power LED package products, price adjustments in low power 5630 LED packages was most evident in September, with prices marked down by 6.79%. Leading international LED package brands including Lumileds, Samsung, Seoul Semiconductor and LG Innotek have all lowered product prices. In the short term, it will be difficult for the market to break free from anemic market conditions. Chinese LED package manufacturers overall production utilization rates remained low, and most face oversupply issues that has led to the continual pricing downtrend.

Ongoing LED bulb promotions in U.S and Europe

In the U.S. 40W equiv. LED bulb prices dropped 2.2% in September. Bulb prices stabilized after sharp price declines throughout July and August, but some manufacturers have continued to promote LED bulb package deals. For instance, prices of Cree’s four 6W LED bulb packed package (which has 450 lumens (lm) output) plunged 17.7% from US $27 to US$ 22.22. The four-packed Cree LED bulb prices have been slashed more than 40% since July 2015. 

Across the globe, LED bulb prices in Germany declined the most by 2.8%. Majority of product prices dropped with the exception of a small number of products in the market. LGE’s 7.5W LED bulb with 450 lm output prices were halved to US $2.99. Product prices declined in many regional markets including UK where bulb prices were down 1.6%. In Asia bulb prices dropped 0.3% in China, slid down 1.5% in Taiwan, and was down 0.7% in Korea. Japan was the only country where LED bulb prices climbed up 2.4%.

A similar trend was observed for 60W LED bulb prices last month, with larger price fluctuations observed in China. In the U.S. market, 60W equiv. LED bulb prices slightly dropped 1.9%, but most product prices remained stable. An exception was prices of Osram Sylvania’s two bulb packed 10W LED bulb in the U.S. market, which plunged 20%. Moving East into the Chinese market, new low priced products released on the market triggered sharp price falls, for instance Philips 7.5W LED bulb retail prices reached US $6.16, and its two packed 10W LED bulb prices was down to US $28.9.

The 60W LED bulb price declines in other market regions were more moderate in September, such as in Germany where prices dropped 1.7%, UK reported an incremental price decline of 0.5%, Taiwan and Korea also reported slight price drops of 1.5% and 0.7% respectively. Following the same trend in 40W LED bulb price market, Japan was the only market region to report a slight 1.8% price hike for 60W LED bulbs.