From the neon flashes of busy cities to the warm lights of remote villages, lighting products are widely used in many fields such as industry, commerce, outdoor and home, and have become an indispensable part of modern civilization. After years of development, China has become the world’s larger producer and exporter of lighting products, with a complete industrial chain and strong manufacturing capacity. The share of Chinese enterprises in the global market has been expanding, and the technical level and product quality have been widely recognized in the international market. Data show that in the first two months of 2025, China’s lighting products exports amounted to 6.445 billion U.S. dollars. In fact, the export data of LED lighting products among Chinese lighting products is very bright, and the export value of Chinese LED lighting products in 2024 amounted to $26.893 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.2%, showing the strong growth potential of LED technology in the international market.
From the perspective of market structure, at present, Asia, Europe and North America are still the main export markets for Chinese lighting products. Data show that in 2024, China exported $17.270 billion of lighting products to Asia, a year-on-year increase of 0.8%, of which, exports to ASEAN countries grew significantly, exports amounted to $8.0 billion, an increase of 14.1% year-on-year.
The demand for Chinese lighting products in the European market remains stable. Last year, China exported $12.126 billion of lighting products to Europe, up 1.7% year-on-year, surpassing North America to become the second largest continent-specific market, of which the export performance to major countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands varied. According to the data, in 2024, China exported $2.097 billion of lighting products to Germany, up 8.5% year-on-year; $1.674 billion of lighting products to the UK, down 2.0% year-on-year; and $1.429 billion of lighting products to the Netherlands, down 0.2% year-on-year.
The North American market is one of the major markets for China’s lighting product exports. Data shows that in 2024, China exported $11.934 billion of lighting products to North America, a year-on-year decline of 2.1%. Among them, the U.S. is the largest single market for China’s lighting product exports, with exports amounting to $10.860 billion.
The entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) has provided a stable platform for intra-regional trade.2024 China’s exports of lighting products to the other fourteen RCEP countries amounted to US$11.130 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.5 percent. “Against the backdrop of slowing global economic growth and rising protectionism, the entry into force of RCEP has provided a more stable platform for economic and trade cooperation among member countries, enabling rapid recovery and development of intra-regional trade, investment and technology exchanges.” Han Shiliang, head of the lighting products branch of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, said.
However, Chinese lighting products also face challenges in some markets. For example, last year, China’s lighting products to the Arab League countries exported 3.788 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year decline of 7.7%, of which 1.172 billion U.S. dollars to Saudi Arabia’s exports, down 1.1% year-on-year. Han Shiliang believes that since 2020, China’s lighting products exported to Saudi Arabia one after another products were “blocked, recalled” events, resulting in a number of lamps and lanterns enterprises products were forced to withdraw from the Saudi market, which highlights the Chinese lighting products in the international market, quality standards and certification systems still need to be further improved in order to adapt to the market demand in different countries and regions. This highlights the fact that the quality standards and certification system of Chinese lighting products in the international market still need to be further improved in order to meet the market demand of different countries and regions.
The outlook for China’s lighting exports in 2025 is full of opportunities as well as challenges.The rapid development of LED lighting and smart lighting technologies has led to increasing penetration in key markets such as North America and Asia-Pacific, bringing new growth potential for China’s lighting products. However, the uncertainty of the global economic situation still exists, bringing certain pressure to the export of Chinese lighting products. Market demand in Europe and the United States is facing downward pressure, some emerging market countries are subject to capital outflows, currency depreciation and debt crisis and other multiple challenges, these factors make China’s lighting products in the relevant markets in the short-term export growth faces certain difficulties. In addition, the rise of trade protectionism has also brought new challenges to China’s lighting exports, some countries and regions set higher technical barriers and trade restrictions, increasing the cost of export enterprises.
Looking ahead, China’s lighting exports will show “total pressure, structural upgrading, regional differentiation” characteristics. In this regard, Han Shiliang suggested that Chinese enterprises still need to take technological innovation as the core, and actively explore emerging markets, planning the global layout of production capacity, in order to continue to lead in the industrial transformation and global production capacity re-layout trend.