LED lighting markets in Europe, the US and Japan have gradually matured, and China is also entering a period of intense competition over pricing and scale. With the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community, LED vendors' attention on emerging markets in Southeast Asia has grown over the years. According to a recent estimate made by LEDinside, the lighting markets of the six major Southeast Asia countries, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines, had a combined value of US$4.5 billion in 2014. Of that, around US$1.1 billion came from the LED lighting market. The growing infrastructure needs within the countries in Southeast Asia are expected to bring demand for LED lighting as well.
LED lighting market grows rapidly and expected to exceed a 30% market penetration rate by 2015
Terri Wang, an analyst for LEDinside, said that Southeast Asia's LED lighting market had the fastest pace of growth in 2013 with an on-year increase of 63%. Although growth lagged during the 2014-2015 period, the rate maintained at 30% and above. Also, the market penetration rate of LED lighting in Southeast Asia has risen with each passing year and at an accelerating speed. Overall, the market penetration rate of LED lighting in the region is projected to grow from 12% to 32% over 2012-2015.
Among the major countries, Singapore's lighting market demand is highly saturated and its traditional lighting segment is shrinking. As a result, Singapore's lighting market on the whole has seen a scale reduction in recent years. This downward trend is likely to continue in 2015. However, the scale of the LED lighting segment is still growing. Besides Singapore, other countries in the region have experienced overall positive growth in their lighting markets during the period. As a general decline set on these markets' traditional lighting segment, LED lighting has become the main growth driver. Indonesia in particular leads in the general lighting market size as well as for LED lighting. Based on LEDinside's estimate, the Indonesia general lighting market in 2014 was valued at US$320 million.
Bullish Southeast Asia to become the main export destination for China vendors
Southeast Asia has seen strong growth in the LED market in the past few years and the rate of replacement for traditional lighting has also increased. Since countries in the region have weak local manufacturing capabilities and rely on imports, the growing demand for LED lighting can also create huge import demand. The scale of imports from China will therefore multiply because of China's advantage in manufacturing capabilities, geographical proximity, and product pricing. Wang expects positive policies and rising replacement demand will speed up the growth of Southeast Asia's LED market penetration rate and LED imports. Furthermore, the region will eventually become the major export destination for China LED vendors. Hence, vendors should accordingly direct their market development efforts to the area.
LED market in 2015
The global LED lighting market value in 2015 is estimated at US$29.908 billion, increasing on year by 24.8% and accounting for 27.2% of the 2015 global market value for all lighting products, according to Digitimes Research.
LED light bulbs, light tubes (T5), projection lamps and street lamps are the four main categories of LED lighting products. There will be 1.81 billion LED light bulbs shipped globally in 2015, hiking on year by 59.9% and taking up 13.9% of all light bulbs shipped in the year.
Global LED light tube shipments in 2015 will reach 520 million units, growing on year by 58.5% with a penetration rate of 13% of global shipments for all types of light tubes. There will be 1.035 billion LED projection lamps shipped globally in 2015, with on-year growth of 56.3% and penetration of 23%.
Global LED street lamp shipments will rise on year by 30.1% to 9.43 million units in 2015, accounting for 11% of all street lamps shipped in the year, said Digitimes Research.
