Feb. 2013 LED bulb retail prices show continuous decline

TAIWAN: According to market intelligence organization TrendForce’s LEDinside division’s newest LED bulb retail findings, the retail prices of LED bulbs all over the world have a downward trend this year for February.

Worldwide 40W replacement LED bulb average retail price dropped by 8.2 percent, reaching $17.8. This is due to the relatively low prices in the newly added Chinese and Taiwanese regions. Worldwide 60W replacement LED bulb average price in certain areas had a clear drop of 13 percent, reaching $25.7. Aside from the slight drop in original statistical region price, the newly added Chinese and Taiwanese regional prices are also comparatively lower.

40W equivalent LED bulbs, Chinese average price reached $11
LEDinside expressed that worldwide 40W replacement LED bulb retail price in February 2013 shows a decline of about 8.2 percent, attaining $17.8. Of the newly added statistics, the 40W replacement merchandise prices in the Chinese region are low with an average price of $11, currently being the lowest among all the surveyed regions.

Chinese domestic-brand bulbs are mostly retailed at $10, with the lowest being $5.5. The Taiwanese region merchandise prices are equally low, with a local-brand bulb dropped to a price of about $8.8.

Aside from this, the UK had a clear price drop in February of 0.6 percent, original merchandise prices slightly fluctuated, with the exchange rate rise bringing about the average price to slightly drop. This area’s newly added items are few. In February, the Germany region prices rose 7.9 percent, original merchandise prices rose and the exchange rate dropped, leading to an increase in price.

This area did not see any newly added items. The 40W replacement merchandise average price in the Japanese region dropped about 11 percent, with a stable decrease in original merchandise prices, and the rise in exchange rate also lead to the decrease. This area did not see any newly added items.

The average merchandise price in the US in February rose 5.9 percent. The original merchandise price has a slight fluctuation, and the newly added items' high prices lead to the rise in the average price. The Korean region in February saw a drop in price by 2 percent, the original merchandise prices did not change. The drop in price was due to the exchange rate growth. There was no new items added in this month.

60W equivalent LED bulbs, worldwide lowest price broke $8.8
In Febuary, 60W replacement LED bulb worldwide average price declined 13 percent, reaching $25.7. Aside from the slight price drop in the original statistical regions, the newly added Chinese and Taiwanese regional prices are relatively low.

In the Chinese region, 60W replacement merchandise prices is at about $20.3 usd, with the lowest being $7.8, which is currently the lowest in all the surveyed regions. Aside from this, the price difference between products of international brands such as Philips and local brands is large.

The Taiwanese region 60W replacement merchandise price is $14.8, with local brands maintains a price at $20 or lower. The average price in Japan in February dropped 5.8 percent, reaching $26.8. The original products had a stable price drop, and this area did not see any newly added items. The Korean area price dropped slightly by 2 percent, with original merchandise prices remaining the same. The price drop was caused by exchange rate growth.There was no new items released in this month.

The US during March had a price drop of 0.5 percent, with original merchandise prices having a slight fluctuation. This region also had no new items released. Aside from this, the price in the UK dropped 9.6 percent, mainly due to the temporary stop of supply of certain original high-price products, leading to a decline.

The remaining merchandise prices had a slight fluctuation. Germany saw a price rise of 9.7 percent in Febuary. Certain original merchandise prices rose, due to the end of New Year sale promotion period ending, which lead to a rise in average price. Also, the exchange rate decrease caused a price rise as well.

Chinese LED bulb market has high level of confusion, still needs experiencing long integration period
LEDinside observed that in February, the worldwide LED bulb average price showed a large decline due to the newly added statistics from the Chinese and Taiwanese regions prices being lower. The rest of the region merchandise prices still maintained a fluctuating trend.

Among these, Chinese and Taiwanese local-brand bulb prices were mostly quite low. For example, Everlight introduced a 60W replacement 8W LED bulb with a luminous flux of 810 lumen. In the Taiwanese market, the retail price is about $11.2, much lower than the worldwide average price. Also, international brands like Philips and Osram priced their products much higher than the local brands.

LEDinside believes that, comparing with other regions, Chinese and Taiwanese LED bulb markets have currently not entered into a mature period. Especially for the Chinese region, product specifications and prices between different brands have a large range of diversity. With the quality not being uniformed, many low-price poor-quality products exacerbate the price competition and market chaos.

This makes consumers’ knowledge and acceptance of LED products unable to increase. In order to drive the market into a mature period, unified specification and quality standards are needed. Also, according to the present situation of the Chinese LED bulb market, the market integration and elimination of non- normalized products still needs a considerably long period of time.