In 2014, LED lighting will fully penetrate and transform, and the growth rate will reach a new high.

In the first half of this year, corporate refinancing channels have been opened, the policy environment is excellent, new products and new technologies in the field of semiconductor lighting are emerging one after another, and the development momentum is booming. Supply and demand are booming in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the industrial chain. Enterprises represented by listed companies are seeing gratifying gains. With the soaring market sentiment, industry investment and expansion, integration and mergers and acquisitions have become more normalized and diversified. Strong demand and fierce competition are the most prominent manifestations of the industry.

In terms of the domestic market, my country's LED lighting product market performed outstandingly in the first half of 2014, with rapid growth, rising volume and falling prices. As corporate channels sink, the performance of the second-tier market is outstanding, and the growth trend of commercial lighting is clear. Despite the impact of real estate and e-commerce, lighting product dealers have achieved good overall results, maintaining a growth rate of over 20% and a gross profit margin of around 25%. It is expected that with the arrival of the renovation peak season in the second half of the year, the growth rate for the whole of 2014 will hit a new high.

Comprehensive penetration and transformation of LED

2014 was the first year that LED lighting began to fully penetrate the domestic market, and retail sales achieved rapid growth. According to relevant data, in the first half of the year, the sales growth rate of LED lighting products through physical dealer channels in my country's domestic market was around 27.8%. More than 88% of dealers reported that the sales of LED lamps in 2014 had significantly increased compared with 2013, and nearly 30% of the merchants said that the growth rate exceeded 30.

The rapid growth of LED market sales mainly comes from the replacement of traditional lamps. In the context of sluggish growth in the overall lighting market, the increase in LED penetration directly promoted the market's explosion in the first half of the year. As of the end of June, the overall penetration rate of LED lighting products in physical channels has reached an average of about 57, an increase of 14 percentage points from 45.7 at the end of 2013.

The second-tier market has exploded, and the market in the central region is taking off. Lured by the huge profits in the LED market, manufacturers and dealers have continued to increase their efforts to promote LEDs. The first- and second-tier markets have already entered the popularization stage, and the third- and fourth-tier markets are also following suit.

From the perspective of market levels and channels, the second-tier market (mainly referring to second-tier prefecture-level cities) experienced a significant explosion in 2014, with the penetration rate increasing by 15.5 percentage points. Sales in the second-tier market increased by about 30% compared with the same period last year. Judging from dealer feedback, 40% of dealers in the second-tier market have a growth rate of more than 30%, while 75% of dealers have a growth rate of more than 10%. After more than a year of intensive cultivation in the second-tier market, major lighting companies have achieved remarkable results in channel layout and marketing promotion in the second-tier market.

The growth rates of first-tier and third-tier markets cannot be underestimated. Sales in the first-tier market in the first half of the year increased by 19.27% ​​compared with 2013, while the penetration rate climbed to 62% and stabilized; in third-tier county-level cities, LED has gradually begun to be recognized by the people, and many companies have begun to strengthen promotion, but the LED penetration rate is still far behind that of first- and second-tier cities. The market growth rate in the first half of 2014 was around 20%.

The e-commerce market is growing rapidly, nearly doubling in two years. The growth rate of online sales of LED lighting products is more obvious than that of physical channels.