Shenzhen Emerges as Major Chinese LED Production Base

China has joined other countries throughout the world in promoting light-emitting diode (LED) lamps as a major means of energy conservation, and the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has emerged as a major base of their production.

A vital impetus for the development of the country's LED lamp industry is the National LED Lighting Engineering Program, which was inaugurated in 2003 under the supervision of the Ministry of Science and Technology with the aim of shaving 260 billion renminbi (RMB) off the country's annual power bill by 2015.

The Chinese program is modeled after similar initiatives in industrially developed countries such as the United States, which is investing US$500 million in LED lamp development from 2000 through 2010 with the aim of saving US$35 billion annually by 2025.

Low voltage requirement, high lighting efficiency, long life, high safety, compact size, and the use of non-toxic and hazard-free materials make LED lamps a global favorite for saving electricity. An LED lamp consumes only 20% as much electricity as an incandescent light and 50% as much as a fluorescent lamp; it also boasts a 100,000-hour lifespan, compared with just 1,000 to 2,000 hours for incandescent lamps.

Following are brief profiles of a few LED lamp makers in Shenzhen:

The Shenzhen Goldenkayi Technology Co. turns out high-power-factor LED lamps mainly for commercial applications. The company's president, Tom Jiang, says that he is now focusing on the improvement of quality instead of the expansion of volume in order to assure long-term development. To that end the company has boosted its R&D spending to over 1 million RMB this year, up from just 300,000 RMB in 2007. The R&D team, which currently consists of 5-10 engineers, is working especially on the improvement of heat dissipation in LED lamps.

Shenzhen Goldenkayi is equipped with advanced equipment such as testing devices which weed out LED light sources that fail to meet standards in terms of lighting efficiency, thermal dissipation, and illumination decay. "We adopt imported LED lighting sources from such prominent suppliers and Cree and Lumileds," the president comments. "Most of our products reach a lighting efficiency of 80 LM/W, and for high-end models the figure can hit 130 LM/W. We can also make products with outward appearances that are tailored to the requirements of buyers."

Improved quality has made it easier to persuade buyers to accept price adjustments made necessary by the appreciation of the RMB, reduced tax rebates for export products, and rising raw-materials prices. Eighty percent of the company's products are shipped abroad, mainly to Europe, Australia, and Canada.

Shenzhen Goldenkayi products have won CE and RoHS certification, but the company is reluctant to apply for UL certification at the present time because of the high cost involved and the possibility that new standards will be imposed soon. This means that American buyers of the products will have to solve the issue of UL certification themselves.

The Quasar Light Co. manufactures LED lamps and components such as power supplies and controllers. To meet surging overseas demand, the company plans to boost its shipments by 80% this year, to 1.8 million units, according to marketing manager Johnson Yang.

Many Western countries have erected technical import barriers to stanch the flood of Chinese LED lamps, but Yang says that Quasar Light is confident of its ability to overcome the barriers and expand its exports through sophisticated technology. The company's LED lamps have passed CE approval and are undergoing RoHS certification; for some models, UL and SAA certification are in the works. This will help boost overseas sales, which now account for 90% of total production. The main markets are the U.S. and Europe.

Founded in 2003 mainly for the production of LED lamps, the Shenzhen Juhan Light-tech Co. now exports 20% of its output to markets that include Europe, Japan, and South Korea.

"Our output has been doubling annually ever since the establishment of the company," notes president Wang Chun. He attributes this robust growth to a strong R&D team, which enables the firm to turn out products to the specifications of its buyers.

Shenzhen Juhan Light-tech hopes to avoid the acute competition in China by expanding overseas sales, Wang says, and for that purpose the company is vigorously working on international quality certifications including CE, RoHS, and UL.