Company that LED the way

Major Chinese lighting manufacturer takes a shine to Zhongshan

China's urbanization drive is creating huge domestic demand for energy-saving products, and the LED lighting industry is facing its brightest period over the next few years, Li Xuliang believes.

"There will be great potential for LED lights wherever people live," says Li, president of Kingsun Optoelectronic Co, a leading LED manufacturer in China.

"A few years ago, some industrial insiders were still doubted the importance of LED lighting, but now more and more people have become aware of the bright future for the emerging industry."

Li was speaking last month at the opening ceremony of his company's new 1,600-square-meter store in the Guzhen township of Zhongshan. Kingsun, which is based in another Pearl River Delta city, Dongguan, also plans to open a factory in Zhongshan.

"An era of LED lighting is coming as there is increasing demand for LED applications in areas including new roads, urban public infrastructure, schools, hospitals and residential communities," Li says, describing how LED lighting was universally replacing the traditional lighting technology of the past 100 years.

The huge market potential has resulted in the rapid development of the LED lighting industry in Guangdong province, one of the traditional manufacturing bases in South China.

Sources in the provincial government says there are now more than 4,000 manufacturers of LED lighting products in Guangdong, mostly based in the Pearl River Delta.

According to Guangdong's science and technology authorities, the output value of LED lights in the province increased by 27.7 percent year-on-year to 125 billion yuan ($19.8 billion; 14.9 billion euros) in the first half of the year, with exports totaling more than 54 billion yuan.

"We will rely on the solid industrial chain in Guzhen to better promote our products at home and overseas," Li said at the opening of the new store, which is expected to help generate annual sales of more than 60 million yuan by the company.

"We are also planning to open manufacturing business in Zhongshan to meet the fast growing market demand, as the township of Guzhen has developed a very comprehensive lighting chain over the past decades," Li told China Daily.

Guangdong's policy of promoteing wider use of LED lights and their decreasing prices since 2011 were major factors in the boost to business, he says.

"The cost of LED products is falling rapidly and getting closer to that of traditional lighting products. The LED lighting market penetration rate has improved a lot."

The prices of many top international brands have also dropped. For example, Philips and Toshiba have been selling LED bulbs at only 49 yuan.

"The reduced price will help boost coverage of LED lights for household use," Li says. "We will promote customers' understanding of LED lighting and speed up the replacement from traditional to LED lighting products."

Originally focusing on making Christmas lights after it was founded in 1993, Kingsun started developing LED lights and street lighting in 1998.

With its 300,000 sq m plant in Dongguan, one of the largest solid-state lighting manufacturing facilities in Asia, with more than 8,000 employees, the company has since become a leading manufacturer of both outdoor and indoor LED lighting in China, with products also covering solar street light, LED tunnel lighting and LED lighting fixtures.

qiuquanlin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 11/01/2013 page16)