How does the industry view the development of the lighting industry?

As the trade friction between China and the United States continues and the gloom does not dissipate, the impact is felt, and industry players attending the Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Autumn Edition) 2018 are not as optimistic about the outlook as they used to be. According to the on-the-spot questionnaire survey, buyers and exhibitors were cautiously optimistic about the lighting market outlook for 2019, but the level of optimism was lower than in earlier surveys. Overall, demand from the Asia-Pacific region may be the main force driving lighting sales growth in the coming year.

In terms of products, LED lighting is the brightest category in the industry, selected by the majority of respondents as the best-selling lighting product in 2019. In particular, LED lighting systems equipped with smart features are expected to see the greatest sales growth in the next two years. The industry believes that with increasing production, LED lights will face price pressure in the next three years, and selling prices should be reduced.

Trade friction impact industry sentiment weakened

Overall, more than half of the respondents (53%) agreed that the U.S.-China trade friction will drag down the export performance of the entire lighting industry. Nevertheless, about one-fifth of respondents (18%) believe that the trade friction may have a positive impact on overall exports.

Although the trade friction between the US and China has weakened the overall sentiment of the industry, industry players remain cautiously optimistic about the outlook for lighting exports in 2019. Half of the respondents (50%) expect sales in 2019 to be similar to those in 2018. Some 38% of respondents expect sales to increase in 2019, while 12% expect them to decrease.

Overall, exhibitors remain more optimistic than buyers. More than half of exhibitors (53%) expect sales to increase over the next 12 months, compared to 28% of buyers.