Analysis on the quality of lighting products exported from China to EU
Europe is the second largest market for my country's lighting products exports, accounting for about 1/4 of my country's lighting exports, and is a must for my country's lighting foreign trade enterprises. From January to May 2023, the value of my country's lighting products exported to the European market is about 5.6 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 7%. Among them, the export value of electric light source related products was 650 million US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 7%; the export value of lighting related products was about 4.4 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 10%.
In the first half of this year, the quality of Chinese lighting products exported to Europe has improved, which to a certain extent reflects some of the results of the high-quality development and transformation of Chinese enterprises. According to incomplete statistics, in the first half of this year, the European Commission's non-food rapid warning system (RAPEX) made 52 notifications on Chinese lighting products, a year-on-year decrease of 13%. China's lighting product notifications accounted for about 8% of China's commodity notifications, a year-on-year decrease of 3 percentage points; Chinese lighting products accounted for 3% of the total notifications, a year-on-year decrease of 2 percentage points. The notified product categories include: ceiling lights, light strings, night lights, LED strip lights, outdoor solar LED lights, selfie lights, LED headlights, flexible LED lights, socket night lights and more than 10 kinds of lighting products.
In terms of geographical distribution, Chinese LED lighting products recalled the most in Eastern Europe, followed by Northern Europe, Western Europe and Southern Europe. Generally speaking, there is a certain correlation between product quality and consumption level. Regions with higher consumption levels have higher prices and better quality of imported products. Compared with developed regions such as Western Europe and Northern Europe, Eastern Europe has a greater demand for low-priced lighting products, which is one of the reasons why there are more notifications in Eastern Europe.
From the perspective of reporting countries, compared with the same period last year, the Czech Republic is the European country that notified the most in the first half of this year, accounting for about 40% of the total notifications of lighting products in my country; followed by Lithuania, accounting for about 13% of the total notifications; Hungary, the country with the most notifications in previous years, the number of notifications this year has dropped by 79% year-on-year.
From the perspective of notified products, the most notified products are still light string products, accounting for nearly 80% of the total notifications of lighting products in my country, a year-on-year increase of 10%. LED strip lights, outdoor solar LED lights, selfie lights, LED headlights, flexible LED lights and other export products were notified once.
Judging from the reasons for the notification, the safety issue of my country's lighting products is still the focus of exporting to Europe. From January to June 2023, RAPEX notified the safety issues of Chinese lighting products, accounting for about 88% of the total notifications, a year-on-year decrease of 2 percentage points, including product structure, external wiring and internal wiring, heat resistance, fire resistance and tracking resistance, protection against electric shock, etc. Secondly, environmental protection testing has gradually become a key indicator for testing the quality of my country's lighting products. In the first half of 2023, environmental pollution issues accounted for about 9% of the total notifications, a year-on-year increase of 1 percentage point.
From January to May 2023, among my country's lighting products exported to EU countries, the export value of lighting products accounted for nearly 80%. Lighting safety standards. Including: European Union EN60598, EN 60335, EN 61558, EN IEC 60238, EN 60432, EN 61347, EN 62368 and other relevant standards, as well as "EU General Product Safety Directive", "EU Low Voltage Directive", "Restrictions on Electrical and Electronic Equipment Requirements for lighting product quality standards in relevant directives such as the Directive on the Use of Certain Hazardous Components. Among them, the EU EN60598 standard and the Low Voltage Directive are the most violated standards, followed by the "Restriction on the Use of Certain Hazardous Components in Electrical and Electronic Equipment". It can be seen from this that EU countries have increased their environmental protection requirements.
In the first half of 2023, compared with other countries and regions, the supervision and spot checks in EU countries will be more intensive, highly targeted, and the implementation standards will be stricter. Export enterprises should pay attention to the latest standard requirements implemented by the EU in a timely manner, start with product design, raw material procurement, manufacturing and other production links, further improve the quality level of products, and export lighting products that meet local standards. At the same time, lighting product export enterprises should also pay more attention to the environmental protection standards of export destination products, strictly use environmental protection and compliance materials that meet local standards for production and manufacturing, continuously improve the green and environmental protection attributes of products, and further strengthen the overseas market of Chinese lighting products competitiveness and reputation.