The low-carbon development model has risen to the level of "national policy", and sustainable low-carbon and green economy has become the trend of the world, which undoubtedly brings unprecedented opportunities for energy-saving and environmental protection industries such as LED lighting. The 2010 Low-Carbon Development International Forum and LED Summit Forum was held in Shenzhen. Some experts predicted that the domestic LED output value will exceed 100 billion this year, doubling that of 2008. The market is very attractive.

    However, this fast-growing industry is faced with many bottlenecks such as talents, technology, patents and standards. The upstream parts of the industry, such as chips, which account for 70% of the industry's profits, are almost monopolized by foreign giants. Could it be that LED is just another area of ​​OEM "Made in China"?

    Policies to promote the LED industry bigger

    At present, not only foreign companies, but almost all domestic lighting companies have begun to set foot in the LED industry. At the same time, driven by energy conservation and emission reduction policies, the LED industry "cake" is rapidly getting bigger. At the end of 2008, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance implemented a pilot project of "ten cities and ten thousand lights". It is planned to promote more than 300,000 LED municipal lighting fixtures in 10-20 cities by the end of this year. In addition, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, this year's World Expo, the Asian Games and next year's Universiade have brought a total of tens of billions of business opportunities to the LED industry.

    Olivier Piccolin, CEO of Philips China, once revealed that "China's LED market alone is worth 40 billion yuan for civilian lighting." Sui Shirong, vice president of Shenzhen LED Industry Federation, also said, "This year, the total value of the domestic LED industry will exceed 100 billion yuan, while the Shenzhen, which is the leader in the development of the domestic LED industry, has an output value of 24.5 billion yuan last year, accounting for one-third of the country's top."

    Shenzhen LED industry begins to take shape

    Shenzhen is the leader in the LED industry. It is understood that the industrial scale of Shenzhen in 2007 was about 15 billion yuan, and the number of employees exceeded 120,000. At present, Shenzhen has become the world's major production and supply base for LED lamps and LED backlights. Sui Shirong pointed out that "Shenzhen has formed a relatively complete industrial chain, and a certain industrial scale has emerged." In addition, in April 2005, the Ministry of Science and Technology officially approved Shenzhen to set up a "National Semiconductor Lighting Engineering Industrialization Base" in Guangming New District, which is also a project for Shenzhen. The LED industry provides a new gathering space.

    Although Shenzhen's LED industry has developed rapidly, its shortcomings have gradually become prominent. The "Planning" pointed out that LED chips and other mid-to-upstream enterprises account for only 1% of the entire industry. Other data shows that LED epitaxial wafers and chips account for about 70% of the industry's profits, which means that many LED companies in Shenzhen Still rely on low cost, earn very little profit to live.

    Xie Suyun, Marketing Director of Shenzhen High-tech LED Research Center, said, "To put it bluntly, Shenzhen is still in the middle and low-end applications of the industry chain. Although there are nearly a thousand LED-related companies, many of them are only very small manufacturers, lacking core technology and competitiveness.”

    In fact, Shenzhen is also actively promoting the development of the upstream LED industry. There have been chip companies such as Century Jingyuan and Fangda, but none of the products at this stage have achieved mass production or been recognized in terms of quality. Peng Xinyu, president of Shenzhen-based LED lighting manufacturer Zhongyihai Technology, admitted, "Most of the chips we currently use are imported. Although domestically produced chips are cheaper, there are still big differences in quality."

    The company has no patents, and the industry has no standards

    From the perspective of the global LED industry structure, American and Japanese companies have monopoly advantages in technology and equipment, and European companies have outstanding advantages in the field of application technology. Moreover, these foreign companies have mastered a large number of major upstream and downstream technology patents. Once they launch a "patent offensive" and build a "patent encirclement", domestic LED companies will face severe challenges.

    Xie Suyun pointed out, "There are more or less infringement problems in the products of many domestic manufacturers. Although many foreign giants have not come to collect them, as long as the LED market slowly spreads, these problems will be very prominent."

    "Pigs need to be fattened before they can be slaughtered." He gave an example to illustrate that the current foreign LED giants are like Microsoft. When the Windows system was promoted, everyone was encouraged to use either pirated or genuine versions at first. After dependence, they began to charge. "At the end of last year, a company in Shenzhen was sued for infringement, and the amount of compensation was as high as 200 million yuan."

    Peng Xinyu feels, "The biggest dilemma of the LED industry is that there are no standards and no norms. Standards are specific technical requirements for various products. Although the government attaches great importance to this industry, there has always been no standard issued, so everyone is in vicious competition, leading to inferior products. Money drives out good money, which has a great impact on the healthy development of the industry.” Another industry insider revealed that less than half of the more than 2,000 enterprises in the Pearl River Delta can achieve stable products and produce according to orders.

    Xie Suyun pointed out, "In fact, all the ministries and commissions of the country and local governments are formulating LED related standards. Not only does the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have a set, but even Shanghai, Guangdong, Shaanxi, Shenzhen and other places have their own standards. However, in addition to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, local governments also have their own standards. The standards may also be mixed with the interests of local enterprises, which will lead to enterprises using the standards to monopolize the local market and become an obstacle to the development of the industry.”

    In addition, Xie Suyun believes, "Currently, LED technology is still in the growth stage and is constantly developing, but the standards set by some departments are lagging behind and out of date, while others are set too high and cannot be achieved at all. These are not enough for the entire industry. regulate."

    The price is too high when will LED lighting become popular?

    Although LED lamps have energy-saving advantages, there are only a handful of LED lighting products on the market. According to some industry insiders, LED lighting products are currently mainly used in automotive lighting, display technology and municipal engineering. The biggest resistance to the popularization of LED applications is undoubtedly the price.

    Xie Suyun table pointed out, "LED lights are several times or even dozens of times more expensive than traditional lighting products. Although the cost can be recovered through energy saving, the user's concept has not yet changed."

    However, manufacturers should be more optimistic. Peng Xinyu said, "It takes time for any product to enter the market. At present, the market's awareness of LED products is much better than it was a few years ago. And some domestic LED lighting products and foreign brands. The price of energy-saving lamps is almost the same, so the competitive advantage is still very large.”

    A research report predicts that with the advancement of technology, the mass production of LEDs, and the decline in prices, civilian LED lighting products will be fully rolled out in 2015, and the market share will reach 20%.