Prices of LED Light Bulbs Bounced Back Slightly in October as Aggressive Pricing Was Put On Hold in the U.S. and Europe

According to the latest report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, the global average price of 40W replacement LED light bulbs rose 2.8% monthly to US$11.1 in October, while the 60W replacement bulbs rose 3.5% to US$15. LEDinside analyst Allen Yu said that vendors in the U.S. and Europe have called a truce in their price war after three consecutive quarters of downtrend. Prices of some promoted products thus saw noticeable rebound in the first half of October. LEDinside also reports that the Chinese LED package market saw prices falling in same month despite a demand upturn in the TV backlight application.

LED package prices in China continue to slide as the industry’s overall capacity utilization rate remains low

After the slump in July and August, the Chinese LED package market began to recover due to a rise in the demand of LED TV backlight units. However, prices of standard and mid-power lighting LED products continue to slide. On a monthly basis, the average price of 0.2W 2835 products, which are mainly supplied by Chinese companies, dropped slightly by 1.6% in October. In the 5630 package segment, OSRAM, Lumileds, Samsung and other major international suppliers led the charge in cutting prices for mid-power products. The average price of low-power 5630 products also dropped by another 4% in October after it had fallen 6.79% in September. Yu noted that capacity utilization rates of Chinese package companies will remain low in the short term, so price downtrend will persist despite that the market is starting to recover.

A lull in promotional campaigns brings U.S. and European prices back to normal

Prices of 40W LED replacement bulbs rose significantly in October. The U.K. market saw an average monthly increase of 9.9% after witnessing relatively large declines for three consecutive quarters. Some products that had been part of promotion deals also returned to their normal prices (e.g. an OSRAM 8W 470lm bulb rose nearly 30% to US$5.93). The average price in Germany also rose by 9.2% during the same period, though some products had even larger increases (e.g. a Philips 8W 470lm bulb rose by over 20% to US$25.45). Prices have been generally stable in the U.S., but a few products saw wide swings in October. A Feit Electric 7.5W 500lm bulb fell 11% to US$7.99, whereas a pack of four 6W 450lm bulbs from CREE arrived at US$26.87, a 21% jump from US$22.22. In Asia, prices were constant in October with the exception of the Japanese market, which saw a 4.5% drop.

The end of promotions for some products also led to a general price rebound for 60W LED replacement bulbs in October. The U.S. market saw an average monthly increase of 9.2%, but again there were larger increases for some products. A pack of two 10W 800lm bulbs from Sylvania rose 25% to US$19.99; while a pack of three 9.6W 800lm bulbs from Feit Electric arrived at $US18.79, up 23.2%. The average price increase in the German market also reached 9.4%. The price rally in Japan was smaller at 3.5%, with a few products seeing larger shifts in prices due to exchange rate fluctuations. For the rest of the world, prices of 60W replacement bulbs remained constant in October.