The biennial Light+Building 2012, the largest lighting exposition in Europe, kicked off on April 15 in Frankfurt, Germany. As LED lighting markets around the world became more mature in 2012, the exposition this year attracted more companies to participate. According to the organizer Messe Frankfurt, 2,352 companies from 50 countries participated and exhibited at Light+Building 2012, a 9% increase compared to 2010, showcasing the latest lighting and building products.

Light-Building 2012 centered around the concept of energy-saving buildings. Aside from innovative and high-efficiency lighting technologies, smart gird and energy-storage technologies were also the focus of the exposition. The participating companies were composed of companies from the electronic, optical, mechanical and thermal sectors as well as players from engineering and automation software and hardware fields.

The entrance to Light+Building 2012, which commenced from April 15-20.

Billboards of global big names. Despite the gloomy economic outlook around the world, major companies did not cut their marketing budgets. Besides the industry veterans such as Philips, GE and Panasonic, Korean company Samsung also has been striving to make inroads into the lighting market.

The exposition was divided into 11 halls with an exhibition space of 578,000 square meters. Philips, OSRAM, Zumtobel AG and other heavyweights’ booths were located at hall 1 and hall 2.

Hall 3-6 mainly consisted of European lighting brand vendors and a few LED companies from Taiwan, Japan and Korea. Most Taiwanese and Chinese LED companies were at hall 10.

Chinese companies exhibiting included CivilLight, All Ring Tech and GYLED; LED downstream players such as Lextar, Everlight, Delta, Epistar, Lite-On, Edison Opto, SemiLEDs, GlacialLight, Lustrous, ARC SSL, Marcoblock and NeoPac Lighting also joined.

The lighting and building companies are in grave need for new blood. According to surveys, the value of Germany lighting and building markets amounts to 11 billion euros with 80,000 people employed; the value hit 65 billion euros with 543,000 people employed if including electronic component and IT markets.

Perspectives from LEDinside

According to LEDinside’s “2011-2015 European LED Lighting Market Report,” the European lighting market value has stably increased to US$18.9 billion by 2011, a 10% YoY increase compared to 2010. Notably, the European LED lighting market value has exceeded US$2.08 billion by 2011. Given the ban on incandescent light bulbs imposed by European Union, the market is expected to see booming growth in the near future.

LEDinside predicts LED lighting market’s compound annual growth rate from 2011 to 2015 to soar to 49%, making it another fast-growing LED lighting market besides Japan.

The European lighting market has seen steady growth over the past few years. Due to its high product prices and growth profit, Europe has always been the target market of the global major companies. Technology and product quality is the key to attaining market share in Europe.