This year’s Hong Kong International Lighting Show, which ran from Oct. 27-30, 2015 comprised of four fairsThe Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Autumn Edition), Eco Expo Asia, Hong Kong International Building and Hardware Fair and World of Outdoor Lighting & Lighting Accessories (WOLLA).

In general, there were double-digit growth in buyers from developed countries including U.S, UK and France. Buyers from emerging markets were also very active. Double-digit percentage growth was also recorded for buyers pouring in from India, the United Arab Emirates as well as ASEAN countries, such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The Autumn Lighting Fair has long been a major event for the global lighting industry. To build a more effective international sourcing platform and give the fair more room for development, the WOLLA was organized by the HKTDC for the first time at AsiaWorld-Expo this year. The two events attracted a total of 2,727 exhibitors from 35 countries and regions forming the world’s largest lighting marketplace.

The Autumn Lighting Fair is a major event for the Asian lighting industry that attracts buyers from all over the world, as evidenced by the large number of visitors to the venue. (All photos courtesy of HKTDC)

WOLLA was held from October 28 to 31 concurrently with the Hong Kong International Building and Hardware Fair and Eco Expo Asia at the AsiaWorld-Expo to provide buyers with a one-stop sourcing platform. “The lighting industry and the building material and hardware industry are closely related to each other as lighting is a key element in building design,” said Executive Director Benjamin Chau. “Buyers such as real estate developers, contractors, engineering companies and construction companies can now look for related lighting solutions when they are sourcing building materials and hardware products and services. So the fairs create synergies and more cross-sector business opportunities for the industries involved."

The newly launched WOLLA features more than 170 exhibitors from around the world to showcase a diverse range of products.

Dipal Madlani, Manager of Madlani Associates of India visited both the Autumn Lighting Fair and WOLLA and said the two fairs together offered him a wider range of products to choose from.

New World Dynamics, a Hong Kong company that offers one-stop lighting solutions, hoped to boost its brand recognition through participating in WOLLA. Brad Au, Controller - Special Projects, said that the running of the three fairs concurrently at the AsiaWorld-Expo allowed exhibitors to connect with more potential buyers and created a good atmosphere for business discussions.

“The concurrent staging of WOLLA and the International Building and Hardware Fair allows us to meet customers from different sectors,” noted Lori Zhang, sales representative of WoQinFeng (Hong Kong) Industrial, an outdoor lighting manufacturer. “On the first day of the fairs, we received buyers from Switzerland, New Zealand and India. Our existing clients have also visited us to see our new products and told us that they will do their sourcing in the Autumn Lighting Fair as well in WOLLA.”

A host of activities during the Autumn Lighting Fair and the WOLLA provide industry players with the latest information.

Jörg Fey, Founder of Jörg Fey Industrieanlagenmontage from Germany said: “When it comes to sourcing, streetlights always top our priority list. The European governments plan to replace traditional streetlights with LED models and that would boost the demand of energy-saving outdoor lighting. Three events concurrently held at the AsiaWorld-Expo share the same theme of energy-saving and environmental protection. Strolling through the fairground gives me new ideas and inspiration.”

The newly launched WOLLA features more than 170 exhibitors from around the world to showcase a diverse range of products.

Smart products in demand

During the fair period, an independent research agency was commissioned to interview 645 exhibitors and buyers of the Autumn Lighting Fair and WOLLA to understand their views on product trends and market prospects. With the rapid advance of technology, all types of products are becoming more “intelligent” that smart city/smart homes have become a major focus of future technological development. More than 80% of survey respondents were convinced that such a technology development trend would benefit the lighting industry in the next two years. In particular, they believed that “household lighting systems that are compatible with or can be controlled by smart phone/tablet application” and “smart lighting systems primarily with energy-saving purpose for household/industrial/ commercial purposes” would have the most potential.

Amid keen competition in the market, a new generation of lighting products is capitalizing on the smart homes and intelligent office trend to seek market breakthroughs. For this reason, the “Smart Lighting & Solutions Zone” was one of the highlights of the Autumn Lighting Fair.

Neonlite Electronic & Lighting (Hong Kong) (Megaman), a long-time exhibitor of the fair, this year showcased its latest LED innovations including the INGENIUM® BLU series that employs Bluetooth 4.1 technology and the INGENIUM® ZB series that adopts ZigBee technology. Since both series are capable of controlling light intensity through smartphone apps, they have caught the attention of buyers. Matthew Chu, General Manager of Neonlite, pointed out that smart lighting will bring immense changes to the lighting industry and, as intelligent lighting products constitute only about two per cent of the global market, there will be lots of opportunities to be tapped. “This year, visitor traffic has been heavy and we have already met with more than 200 buyers from all over the world on the first day of the fair. We have also identified potential distributors from Argentina, Mexico, the Middle East and Russia.”

“iTrash Smart City Garbage and Recycling Integration System” (right) from Taiwan’s Hao-Yang Environment Science Limited.

A number of hi-tech environment protection products are on display at the Eco Expo Asia, including this vertical axis wind turbine from Robin Energy Limited of Hong Kong.

Visitors take a spin in Volkswagen’s e-Golf, the brand’s first pure electric vehicle, and Nissan’s e-NV200 multi-purpose electric commercial van.

At the Hong Kong International Building and Hardware Fair, Hong Kong exhibitor Home Building Company Limited demonstrates a locally designed prefabricated house that can be assembled and disassembled multiple times. Haze Sin, Director of Home Building Company Limited said, “This year’s exhibition looks even better as we've seen more visitors. This fair attracts a large number of quality and professional buyers who understand the industry so well. We are now close to striking deals with two buyers from Thailand and Taiwan.”

Hi-tech green products in Eco Expo Asia gain popularity

High technology solutions are applied, not just in lighting systems but also in environmental protection. At Eco Expo Asia, a host of hi-tech environmental protection products were showcased, including the “iTrash Smart City Garbage and Recycling Integration System” from the Taiwanese company Hao-Yang Environment Science Limited. The system was well received by buyers for its e-money function: the garbage collection system has a weighing mechanism that can charge fees according to the quantity of garbage collected. On the other hand, the resource recycling machine can process rebates for plastic bottles and aluminium cans recycled. “The system is a breakthrough in garbage collection,” said Jewel Liu, Vice General Manager of Hao-Yang. “We have met customers from Mexico, Russia, Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, including cleaning and recycling service providers. The visitors are professional market insiders who come to us with serious and useful inquiries, among them are government officials from Hong Kong and Singapore who have shown great interest in us.”

Visitors take a spin in Volkswagen’s e-Golf, the brand’s first pure electric vehicle, and Nissan’s e-NV200 multi-purpose electric commercial van

Homebuilding, a Hong Kong company that attended the Hong Kong International Building and Hardware Fair this year showcased their local designs. The company specializes in designing reconstructible houses. “We are delighted to see the fair attract more attendees this year, and become even more successful than last year.” said the company’s General Manager Wai Leon Sin. “The show has attracted large number of professional buyers, and we have consulted Taiwanese and Thai buyers.”

The Autumn Lighting Fair, WOLLA and the Hong Kong International Building and Hardware Fair were organized by the HKTDC. The events welcomed more than 38,000, over 11,000 and close to 12,000 buyers respectively. Eco Expo Asia was jointly organized by the HKTDC with Messe Frankfurt (Hong Kong) Limited and welcomed more than 12,000 buyers. The Autumn Lighting Fair was held from 27 to 30 October at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, while the other events were held from 28 to 31 October at the AsiaWorld-Expo. These fairs provide a one-stop sourcing platform, which creates synergies and more cross-sector business opportunities for the industries involved.