月份：2012年11月

LED backlight market value was expected to climb continuously

LED backlight market is expected to stage a comeback. With the resolution improvement of action device panels, and meanwhile active-matrix AMOLED limitation due to technical characteristics (it is unable for resolution improved in the short term), the market value of LED backlight components would continue to rise next year.

 

Experts indicated that, due to the self-luminescence characteristics of AMOLED, light sources are no longer needed.

 

Experts indicated that, due to the self-luminescence characteristics of AMOLED, light sources are no longer needed. Thus AMOLED is treated as the biggest threat to the LED backlight market. However, with the rapid development of LED backlighting technology, many LED-backlight-related industries, including smart-phone, tablet devices and other consumer electronics, caused the popular tide of high-resolution. AMOLED encountered bottlenecks in this area together with its expensive production costs will slow down the growing trend of AMOLED products. On the other hand, the liquid crystal display (TFT LCD) will feel no constraints, making LED backlight market continue to light.

 

Experts further pointed out that, although AMOLED has multiple advantages: super-thin and high color-saturation, the over-low resolution is still the fatal Achilles Heel for it. Take Samsung high-end smart-phone Galaxy S3 for example, its resolution is only 306ppi, while the resolution of Apple iPhone5 is 326ppi. It is estimated that with the further improvement of TFT LED display technology will increase the resolution, from 326ppi to 441ppi. Now the gap between these two smart devices is obvious.

 

In addition to the resolution obstacle, the expensive selling price is the main reason that hindered the fast rising of AMOLED applications. According to professional analysis, nearly 90% AMOLED panels is monopolized by Samsung, leading to the constant high price. In order to reduce production costs and meanwhile meet the high-quality requirements of users, other mobile manufacturers adopted LCD IPS panels with full high-definition (Full HD) and energy-saving led tunnel light backlighting elements.

 

In addition, AMOLED panels can be hardly adopted by TV sets, which is another major reason for its low production rate. In spite that both Samsung and LG have announced the successful development of 50 inch+ AMOLED panels, the implement of quantity production has been repeatedly delayed. The estimated selling price is also breathtaking. For many families, buying general LCD TV sets will be more practical than purchasing AMOLED display products.

The low utilization rate of indoor LED lighting products: high price is not the only reason

In order to increase the utilization rate of indoor LED lighting product, in addition to public institutions, civil facilities should also strengthen the import of the LED technology. Earlier, a number of measures have been taken by South Korea Government to push such process forward. Mr. Jeong Hyun Jeong (PR minister of KLEDA) “It is very hard for ordinary people to afford such expensive products. Besides, lamps are not as important as other furniture. Most of buyers would not purchase expensive fixtures to save a little electricity.

 

The low utilization rate of indoor LED lighting products: high price is not the only reason”

 

This time, the Seoul City Government and KLEDA took into account the quality consciousness of their people. Jeong said: “We held several introduction meetings, providing free five-year warranty and other attractive after-sales service. We received great and positive response, which is a good thing for us, means some high-quality indoor LED lighting products still can get the attention of consumers, regardless of their expensive selling prices.” It is said that KLEDA has received a lot of LED-related replacement requirements from ordinary families. Jeong also introduced that: “Many citizens passed their opinions and expectations to us. They expected LED lighting technology not only to be used in public places, like underground parking lots, shopping centers, but also could be used indoors.”

 

During this importing process, the previous obstacle – expensive selling price problem has also been solved. Through the cooperation with KLEDA and other LED enterprises, the average price of LED lighting fixtures reduced from 100,000 won to 50,000won. “Free installation, charge the saved electricity.” This advanced strategy is a key point to the promotion of indoor LED lighting products. Due to the unit price decline of LED lamps, the refund period based on ”paid by saved electricity ” will be shortened.

 

In accordance with the introduction of KLEDA, an apartment in Busan replaced 300 pieces fluorescent tubes used in their underground parking lot with LED lamps one year ago, leading to a monthly-electricity saving of 7.5 million won. The importation of each led tunnel light lamp cost them 161,000 won, in which 48.3 million won coming from the replacement cost. Taking this into account, the free import strategy has significant meanings.

South Korea: target to 100% LED city lighting penetration

Seoul City government had launched very active LED universal policies. From 2007 to 2009, 23 billion won has been put into this area, replacing 156,000 transportation lighting applications and 38,000 building lighting applications with LED lamps, consequently saving electricity of 42,400 MWh (1.6 billion won).

 

In 2012, on the basis of these policies, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced a number of additional measures to speed up the process of 100% LED city lighting penetration.

 

In 2012, on the basis of these policies, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced a number of additional measures to speed up the process of 100% LED city lighting penetration. The local government announced in June of 2012, public institutions should be responsible for introducing LED lamps in new buildings and facilities. By the end of June of 2012, the utilization rate of LED lamps in public institutions reached 10%. It is reported that this plan will be further expanded in the future, aiming at a 50% LED lighting utilization rate in public building by 2014, and 100% in 2018. It is estimated that, at such speed, the 100% LED city lighting penetration can be realized by 2030.

 

Before 2014, there are 7.8 million lamps need to be replaced, while the forbidden of incandescent lamps will speed up this process, 50% of public institution lighting, 25% of civil lighting. According to the local government’s projections, if it is realized in the future, they would save approximate 1100GWh per year, reducing 120 billion won electricity cost annually.

 

Public institutions include: Seoul Metropolitan Government Building, 25 Districts, 17 offices, 218 subway station facilities, 20 underground shopping streets, ranged widely. All lamps used in these places will be replaced by LED lighting products. This plan has been steadily implemented.

 

In addition, Seoul City local government intended to cooperate with KLEDA to promote led tunnel light technology in underground parking lots. Seoul City government and KLEDA released in May of 2012 “the popularization plan of LED city lighting business in apartment underground parking areas and large-scale commercial facilities underground parking areas”. This support policy was put into force since June this year. In fact, before this, a similar policy has executed in Gyeonggi and Daegu City in February 2011, Seoul is the expansion of this plan.

 

Under the encourage of government’s support policies, underground parking lots of apartments and large-scale commercial facilities in Seoul can import LED lights for free. Although individual introductions are not included into the “free” range, buyers still can enjoyed a 40% discount in the form of government subsidies.

Seoul lighting target: the 100% LED city lighting project

In 2006, South Korea announced a plan for popularizing LED city lighting “15/30 (the penetration LED lighting applications in Seoul should reach 30% by 2015)”. This project will be start with traffic lights, outdoor displays and billboards, replacing traditional incandescent lamps with LED lighting technology. Therefore, a large number of companies considered this as a good opportunity to expand their business and swarmed into this emerging market.

 

In 2006, South Korea announced a plan for popularizing LED city lighting “15/30 (the penetration LED lighting applications in Seoul should reach 30% by 2015)”.

 

But the truth is LED lights were not widely promoted as expected. Through large-scale investments from several electronics giants, South Korea’s upstream LED chip industry grew rapidly and became the second largest provider in the world in a short term. In the field of downstream LED application manufacturing industry, in addition to large makers, small and medium sized LED companies also showed a positive response to exploit the international market. But too many enterprises have involved into this business, plus the continuous dropping of unit price, making these companies entered a difficult period in advance.

 

What is worse is that the stagnated pace of the popularity of the Korean LED lighting industry. in 2010, the total occupation of LED products among all lighting technologies is around 2.5%, this value only grew by 1.5% by the end of 2011 (6% in Seoul). The government worked to support these enterprises by implementing a couple of LED city lighting projects. However, in order to realize the object of “15/30” plan, from 2012, the popularity of LED lights should be at a rate of 6.5% per year. For now, it is difficult for the South Korean Government to achieve the target.

 

The constant low level of domestic LED penetration will undoubtedly impact negative influences on their international market plans. More and more Korean enterprises will lose their competitiveness in overseas markets. Accordingly, the government, local government of Seoul City and the LED industry group Korea LED Association (KLEDA) stood in their respective positions, introducing measures for further promotion of LED lamps. In order to head the call, Seoul local government began local led tunnel light city lighting projects from themselves, using LED lamps in their new government buildings: the external glass can change the building appearance through its internal mounted LED lamps (dimming and color mixing).

 

Installation problems of LED airport lighting applications

There are several important problems need to be taken into consideration in the installation of LED airport lighting applications: 1) the installation of LED airfield lamps is more difficult than that of incandescent lamps; 2) the compatibility problem. The LED airport lighting system may not be compatible with the old electricity infrastructure system, which is typically designed for incandescent lights. Verification is necessary before the purchasing and installation;

 

There are several important problems need to be taken into consideration in the installation of LED airport lighting applications

 

According to comprehensive survey results, major reasons for LED airport lighting applications are reduce maintenance costs, decline power consumption, improve the visibility of the airport lighting system. Interestingly, no one mentioned any legislative reasons. Despite the fact that the national energy legislation, such as the 2007 EISA (Energy Independence and Security Act), improved the luminous efficiency requirements for general lamps. Many existing incandescent lighting products may not meet this requirement in the next ten years. However, it seems that EISA impacted little influences on airport lighting projects. One possible reason may be that this act does not include some special light sources with anti-vibration and anti-corruption capacities.

 

Expectations of maintenance reduction were often mentioned in the literature. Copenhagen Airport indicated that they have recently installed hundreds of LED obstruction lights, with an estimated lifetime of 100,000 hours, far more than that of incandescent lamps (2,000 hours). In order to win the tender, some manufacturers even provided a 5-year warranty. According to the report of Airports Council International (ACI) in 2007, compared with incandescent slides, their LED slides were expected to reduce maintenance costs significantly. LED stop lamps used in the Newcastle International Airport (UK) were expected to extend the maintenance cycle of their lighting system, from one month to six years. The Burlington (Vermont) International Airport (Edelstein 2009), (Little Rock, Arkansas) the Neuberger Airport (States News Service 2009a), (Trenton) the New Jersey Airport (TendersInfo 2010a), the San Bernardino (California) International Airport (TendersInfo 2010b), the Raleigh-Durham International Airport (News and the Observer, 2010), the Tulsa (Oklahoma) International Airport (Stewart 2011a), all these airports had similar reports about their LED airport lighting applications.

 

Reducing energy consumption is another important reason to replace incandescent lights with LED lamps in the airport lighting system. U.S. General Accounting Office (USGAO 2010) listed led tunnel light as one the four common energy-saving equipments used in airports. At Neuberger airport, reducing energy consuming is the most important reason for them to install LED airport lamps (States NewsService 2009a, Targeted News Service 2010). It is estimated that the power consumption of led tunnel light is only 25%-33% of incandescent lamps.

LED airport lamps: a new area for LED lighting applications

Compared with traditional lighting technologies that used in airports, LED airport lamps dramatically reduce the power consumption and maintenance costs. The LED airport lighting system has been put into use for several years. Manufacturers received positive feedbacks in the aspect of visibility, duration and performances. Via technological improvements and FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)’s endeavors and guidance in promoting LED airport lighting technologies, the compatibility issues have been largely improved.

 

Compared with traditional lighting technologies that used in airports, LED airport lamps dramatically reduce the power consumption and maintenance costs.

 

Most of airport lighting systems are initially designed for incandescent lighting technologies. Therefore, new LED airport lamps could not be compatible with them. However, by replacing part of the electricity infrastructure and replacing incandescent lights by LED lamps, the energy efficiency and reliability can be increased greatly.

 

Although the production cost of LED lamps is much higher than that of incandescent lamps, after several years’ using, the saving energy consumption and maintenance cost will bring back rewords. The maintenance cost of LED airport lighting system will be much lower than that of incandescent lighting system.

 

Light-emitting Diodes (LEDs) are more and more widely used in security-related occasions, including evacuation signs (Boyce 1994), road traffic signs (Conwayand Bullough 1999), automotive brake and turn signal (Olson 1987), street lighting (Radetsky2010) and airport lighting applications. LEDs’ characteristics made these lamps are rather popular in visual signal applications.

 

Currently, most of airports are still using incandescent bulbs, the service life of which is much shorter that of LED lamps. The standard lifetime of incandescent bulbs is around several thousand hours (Bullough 2000), while the average lifetime of LED lights can reach up to 50,000 hours. In the meanwhile, LED lamps have higher luminous efficiency (lm/W) than that of incandescent bulbs and consume less power. Due to the over-low light efficiency of incandescent lights, the launch of EISA in 2007 speeded up the process of replacing incandescent lighting products with other lighting technologies. The launching of EISA did not directly affect airport lighting projects, but with the acceleration of incandescent lights’ elimination, LED airport lamps became a hot topic recently. However, the compatibility problem may be the biggest obstacle for the widely using of led tunnel light in airports. Besides, the narrow bandwidth of LED waves means that they cannot generate infrared rays, which are helpful in ice melting in cold days.

Organic EL lighting applications: more powerful in luminous efficiency

Mr. Tian Yuansheng from Organic EL Lighting gave a speech on “OLEDs World Summit 2012”, he said that: in theory, the luminous efficiency of organic EL is the same as that of LED lighting technology. However, organic EL lighting applications have much higher efficiency, which can improve the luminous efficiency of the entire organic EL lighting products to 249lm/W, which is no doubt the highest luminous efficiency lighting technology in the world presently.

 

Organic EL lighting applications: more powerful in luminous efficiency

 

According to his introduction, the theoretical boundary value of luminous efficiency of white organic EL components is around 249lm/W at 4000K (single light-emitting construction), and 184lm/W for series construction. The theoretical boundary value is a laboratory data that based on the assumption of 100% light-extraction efficiency and 100% external quantum efficiency. The luminous efficiency of white-ray LED lighting components is around 260lm/W. If using single light-emitting construction, organic EL lighting applications can have a similar luminous efficiency as white-ray LED does. Organic EL is also named as organic LED, OLED. They have much similar light-emitting principles as LED. From this point, there is no doubt that these two technologies have much closed luminous efficiency.

 

Among all organic EL components that produced, some of them are closed to 100% in internal quantum efficiency, but with a light efficiency only 60%.

 

In the comparisons between LED and organic EL, Mr. Tian Yuansheng indicated that: “Even using the current organic EL technology, the luminous efficiency of the lighting equipment can reach the level of LED lighting applications. According to ‘DOE Multiyear Plan’ a technical report for LED technology issued in March, 2010 by Department of Energy (DOE), before 2009 the luminous efficiency of LED lighting products is only 32.3% that of led tunnel light sources.” This is quite normal, since exposed light sources will cause damages to human eyes. That is the reason why most LED lighting products are covered by frosted covers. Diffusion plates and other protective shells will reduce the luminous efficiency inevitably. However, in most cases, organic EL components can be directly used as lamp in organic EL lighting applications without any protective covers. Thus, usually the luminous efficiency of organic EL lamps is quite closed to commonly used LED lamps.

The real states of LED industry: cheap copies cover the street

Recently, an announcement from SFT and Maile Si attracted the attention of many people. Leave aside the fact that the former has finished the regular process of litigation, the later was legally responsible for the infringement. With the gradual penetration of LED lighting products in the terminal market, in the see-saw battle of infringement and rights protection, the crackdown has been pushed to the cusp of the LED industry.

 

Recently, an announcement from SFT and Maile Si attracted the attention of many people.

 

Zhongshan City is the one of the most famous places for lighting applications in China. More than 4000 lighting shops gathered here, fluorescent lamps, incandescent lamps, energy-saving lamps, HID, HPS, you can find almost every existing lighting technologies here. It is said that Zhongshan City is the “weathervane” or “barometer” for the lighting industry, which will totally reflect trends of lighting applications.

 

With the development of LED lighting technology, a large number of merchants started to promote LED lamps. LED Down Lights, LED Spotlights, LED Strips, LED Wall-washer, LED Panel Lights, LED Ceiling-mounted Lights, etc.. You can find almost every model in the LED industry here.

 

However, wide variety is a fuse for cheap copies. “Take MR16 for example, in order to avoid cheap copies, we have recently developed a new 4W model, which is unique and difficult to copy. But what’s the end? We found similar products in the market one month later. Only one month. Cheap copy is completely inevitable.” Said Mr. Zhou Jiaxiang, the chairmen of Loyal Lighting.

 

According to the related data, with the gradual increasing recognition and acceptance of terminal users, the domestic LED indoor lighting market presented a significant growth trend. In the first half of this year, the output value of LED lights grew nearly 36%, in which 50% came from LED indoor lighting applications.

 

In the meanwhile, the competition is fierce in the LED lighting market. Since the first half of 2011, nearly 1800 new LED companies were set up in China. 1000 of them are manufacturers for indoor LED lighting area.

 

“Indeed, the led tunnel light market is growing, but the number of manufacturers grew as twice faster as the LED industry did. Most of them were lacking of core technologies and money. They had to start with imitation or even copy. The market is so big, hard to regulate.” Said Mr. Ma Shoufeng, general manager of Long Lighting.

LED lighting industry has entered into the “crazy times”?

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games completely fueled LED products. The site of the “magic picture” on the opening ceremony attracted the attention of the world, bringing them the magic charm from LED lighting technology.

 

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games completely fueled LED products. The site of the “magic picture” on the opening ceremony attracted the attention of the world, bringing them the magic charm from LED lighting technology.

 

At present, more than half of the core technologies and patents in the LED lighting industry are concentrated in the United States, the Europe and other developed countries. Our country was lacking of technologies and patents in the field of LED and also a unified standard. Besides, the price war, the quality variation, the vicious competitions from low-power LED lighting products and the lack of high-end products made the domestic LED market fell into a poor state of development.

 

LED is a kind of device that can convert electrical energy into optical energy. As the most-watched lighting source in the world, LED lighting industry has been marked as one of the country’s seven strategic emerging industries. Tremendous opportunities attracted capital from various quarters. According to publicly available data, there are more than 8000 LED manufactures in China.

 

The past six months, there are 8 domestic LED lighting enterprises successfully listed, and six of which has listed on GEM. On the other hand, in the past year, the domestic small and medium LED companies frequently closed down. In 2011, there are 80 LED lighting companies closed down in Shenzhen, and 10% small sized LED companies went out of business in other cities and regions in Guangdong Province.

 

It is worth nothing that as the flourishing domestic LED lighting market, more and more foreign enterprises shifted their attentions to China. Especially in recent years, the number of patent applications in the LED field increased significantly. In addition, from the point of view of industrial chain distribution, patents in the field of LED chip technologies and packaging technologies are mainly from Europe, North America and Japan.

 

Compared with other foreign companies, China’s LED patent applications were usually at a disadvantage. According to the Institute of Engineering LED industry’s survey, by the end of 2008, there were 26071 pieces of LED-related patents applications in China, most of which (more than 50%) were concentrated in LED mid-stream industries and downstream packaging industries. Only a few of them were from upstream led tunnel light chip core area.

After Japan, the United States will become the next super market for LED lighting industry

Although Japan’s LED bulbs shipments doubled in 2011, mainly due to the raising consciousness of energy-saving, the promoting speeded up among ordinary buyers. LED lamps have a much longer service life than incandescent bulbs, if used in ordinary families and 50 hours per week, a 40,000-hour LED lamp can maintain a normal work condition up to 10 years without any replacements.

 

After Japan, the United States will become the next super market for LED lighting industry

 

From the standpoint of the U.S. lighting market, in 2012, local hydropower firms launched Rebate issues for LED bulbs, LED tubes and other LED lighting applications. Products must have Energy Star certification or DesignLight Consortium certification. Rebates can increase the purchasing desire of consumers, making them more willing to replace their old lighting devices with LED lamps. In fact LED lights provide them better lighting environment and save more power. Since 2012, the number of LED commercial lighting application makers inclined stably, causing the sharp price dropping. Plus the prosperous in the commercial building industry, LED lighting industry developed rapidly in the commercial area. On the other hand, the Lighting Design Alliance set out specifications and requirements for 4-foot tubes. As a result of the prosperity of LED lighting industry in the commercial area, the United States will become the next super market for LED lighting applications after Japan.

 

In the first half of 2012, the standard case progress of China’s LED lights was less as expected, mainly due to the undecided financial subsidy policies. Besides, the debt crisis exerted a bad influence on the global market, heavily hitting LED producers and exporters. Looking ahead to 2013, the financial subsidy standard case has been drawn by the three ministries. It is expected that from the end of 2012 to 2013, the China’s Government will allocated 1.6 billion yuan on LED lighting industry, which will eventually drive 4 billion yuan scale LED lighting market demand.

 

As lacking of local infrastructure, only large led tunnel light enterprises, like Philips and small LED manufactures would like to enter this emerging market. Project lighting matched with portable lighting applications. Energy generation and energy storage drove up and became new industries, meeting the humanities and environmental needs. In addition, how to change the situation of lacking of core technologies, get rid of low-level redundant construction is the crux of the problem faced by the LED lighting industry in China.