With the low profit of LED general lighting and the escalating uncertainty of the LED industry due to the trade war, worldwide LED manufacturers are facing unprecedented challenges and have taken different actions to cope with the situation. Some decided to divert their LED lighting business while others are changing their business focal point. However, LEDinside believes that there are plenty of opportunities for LED lighting technology despite the difficult circumstance of the current LED lighting industry.

In the report, 2018 Light LED and LED Lighting Market Outlook, LEDinside has specified various growth drivers for the global LED lighting market. In spite of the saturation of general lighting, smart lighting and niche lighting including horticulture lighting will keep on growing.

Smart lighting is without doubt one of the most popular concepts in the LED lighting industry. With the integration of sensing technologies, the applications can be further extended to smart building and smart city to enhance the overall convenience and well-being of people. When combined with the concept of Human Centric Lighting, smart lighting can be further applied in healthcare, education and commercial real estate. According to the analysis of LEDinside, global smart lighting has developed rapidly and its market scale is projected to come to US$ 13.4 billion in 2020.

(Image: Current by GE)

Industrial and commercial lighting are the largest application fields of smart lighting. Current by GE has worked with several cities in the U.S. including Portland and Honolulu by providing its LED streetlights and IoT platform for smart city projects. Taiwanese LED package company Everlight has been proactively pushing its development of intelligent LED applications and supplied its smart streetlights and smart lampposts to Taipei City.

Another focus of LED lighting technology is horticultural applications. Utilizing LED lighting to grow crops with controlled indoor facilities has created a revolution in agriculture. With the technologies, it is possible to conduct farming under extreme environmental conditions. LEDinside estimates that the market scale of LED plant lighting will grow to US$ 633 Million by 2022. Worldwide startup farms and food suppliers have been building greenhouses or vertical farms adopting LED lighting and controlled system to grow food in any possible places such as an old tunnel or in the desert. Many also consider it a solution to the issues of shrinking farming population and global warming.

(Image: NASA/Osram)

With the acquisition of U.S. based Fluence Bioengineering and the investment in the Canadian startup Motorleaf, Osram has increased its involvement in the horticulture sector and intended to expand its horticulture portfolio. Signify has continued to enlarge its horticultural lighting series and intensified its cooperation with food producers. LED producers including Lumileds, Samsung Electronics and LG Innotek have also introduced horticulture LEDs constantly.

Looking into the LED lighting industry, the deficit of the general lighting business for several LED manufacturers may be a turning point for them to restructure their technology focus and business strategies. By cutting off the capacities of low profit general lighting, worldwide LED producers might have more momentum to boost high-end lighting which requires advanced technologies and to explore further possibilities of LED lighting.

Related readings:
How Falling Profit and Trade War Influence Current LED Lighting Industry
The Deficit of LED Lighting Pushes International Brands to Cut off Their Lighting Business
The Impacts of the U.S. - China Trade War on Global LED Lighting Business
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