From traditional incandescent bulbs to various types of high-efficiency lighting fixtures, from single product manufacturing to intelligent, healthy, and systematic lighting solutions, my country's lighting industry has made great strides over a century of history, becoming the world's largest producer, exporter, and consumer, and has effectively enhanced its international competitiveness and voice.
However, facing the complex and turbulent current international situation, the cross-border integration of science and technology, the diversified changes in consumer demand, and the goal of sustainable development, the development of the lighting industry still faces many problems. In order to implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Outline for Building a Quality Power, and promote the high-quality development of the lighting industry, on July 15, the first China Lighting Appliance Industry Standard Quality Conference was held in Changzhou, Jiangsu. He Ye, Vice President of the China Light Industry Federation, Chairman of the China Lighting Appliance Association, and Chairman of the National Lighting Appliance Standardization Technical Committee, Liu Jie, Second-level Inspector of the Product Quality and Safety Supervision Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, Li Desen, Deputy Secretary of the Zhonglou District Committee of Changzhou City and Mayor of the District People's Government, and other government departments and industry leaders attended the meeting and delivered important speeches. The conference focused on topics such as standardization policies, quality evaluation, testing and certification, and domestic and foreign trade market quality analysis, aiming to pool the wisdom of all parties, form an industry consensus, solve development difficulties, accelerate the formation of new quality productivity in the lighting industry, and achieve high-quality development.
Standard quality is the key to breaking the deadlock
In his keynote speech, He Ye pointed out that lighting products are closely related to people's production and life, and play an important role in many fields. As an important part of the light manufacturing industry, the lighting and electrical appliance industry has achieved remarkable development achievements in the past four decades. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, my country's lighting manufacturing industry has formed an annual sales scale of 600 billion yuan, and the industry will achieve exports of 56.1 billion US dollars in 2024. In the context of continued global economic downturn and pressure on both domestic and foreign sales, it has basically maintained a stable trend.
Despite the remarkable achievements of the lighting industry, its development still faces many problems. First, the industry concentration is low, the scale effect is insufficient, the popularization of LED lighting has led to a large number of enterprises but small scale, and low-end overcapacity. From January to May 2025, the growth rate of industrial added value of enterprises above designated size decreased by 1.7 percentage points year-on-year; second, high-end consumer demand is urgently needed to be released. Affected by the downturn in the real estate industry, the domestic lighting consumer market has weak growth, and smart health products have not yet formed a consumer upgrade support; third, low-price competition disrupts the market order. By the end of 2024, the average export price of more than 80% of lighting products has dropped, and the phenomenon of "price for volume" in the foreign trade market is prominent; fourth, the operating efficiency of enterprises is declining. In 2024, the total profit of enterprises above designated size decreased by 6.8% year-on-year, and the number of loss-making enterprises increased by 13% year-on-year; fifth, product quality issues are still prominent. In 2024, the national sampling rate of unqualified online lamps exceeded 30%, and the number of Chinese lighting products recalled by the EU remained high.
Faced with the downward pressure of industry development and the country's determination and measures to maintain a fair competition order, He Ye emphasized that the lighting industry should take positive actions to promote industry development and form a benign competition order and industry ecology with technological innovation, quality leadership, and standard empowerment as the core. She proposed four major cognitions: "Improving the quality level of standards is an important task to implement national strategies, improving the quality level of standards is a necessary means to enhance competitiveness, improving the quality level of standards is a booster to expand domestic and foreign markets, and improving the quality level of standards is the starting point for cultivating new quality productivity." At the meeting, He Ye took the successful application and entry into the international market of the group standard "Chinese offline voice control lamps for indoor use" (T/CALI 0809-2024) as an example to illustrate the role of standards in promoting market development. "We should also see that the lighting industry provides enterprises with opportunities to reshape the industry landscape because of its non-concentrated scale. With the continuous expansion of application areas, we are expected to cultivate various single champions and corporate phalanxes in more subdivided tracks. Therefore, from a side view, the development space of the lighting industry is still huge. The key lies in how enterprises seize opportunities and take positive actions." He Ye said. Fair competition and quality and safety are equally important
Regulatory departments escort market order
In 2023, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the "Outline for Building a Quality Power Country". The core task framework of "Quality Power Country" includes promoting economic quality and efficiency development, enhancing industrial quality competitiveness, accelerating product quality upgrades, enhancing corporate quality and brand development capabilities, building high-level quality infrastructure, and promoting quality governance modernization. Improving the quality and efficiency of lighting industry standards has important practical significance and practical effects on further consolidating the development foundation of my country's lighting industry and promoting the lighting industry from big to strong.
Liu Jie, a second-level inspector of the Product Quality and Safety Supervision Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, pointed out in his theme report that product quality and fair competition are the cornerstones of the country's high-quality economic development. He emphasized that quality is the "lifeline" of enterprises, and fair competition is the "source of living water". Liu Jie revealed that in the past ten years, the country has carried out more than 20 national supervision and spot checks on the lighting appliance industry, but the qualified rate of lighting products is still less than 80%, and the qualified rate of online purchases in some years is even as low as 30%. Quality problems need to be solved urgently.
Liu Jie said in his speech that product quality and fair competition have increasingly surpassed the boundaries of the company's own operations and are closely linked to the high-quality development of the national economy and the people's yearning for a better life. For enterprises, product quality is the "lifeline" on which the company depends for survival, and fair competition is the source of living water that nourishes this lifeline. The two are interdependent and mutually beneficial, and together build a solid foundation for a healthy market ecology. He pointed out that product quality is the life and soul of an enterprise, the hard currency to win the trust of consumers and gain market access, and the most basic guarantee for an enterprise to survive in fierce competition; at the same time, product quality is the source of development, the core engine for an enterprise to move from "bigger" to "stronger", and the shield of dignity and the "guardian" of the brand soul. Enterprises should pay close attention to product quality, and should also maintain fair competition to ensure the source of market vitality and the fountain of innovation. He hopes that enterprises, as the main body of practice, should work from the following key dimensions: first, to build a solid foundation for product quality and use new scientific and technological methods; second, to improve the soft power of quality; third, to recognize and respect the legitimate status and innovative achievements of competitors; fourth, to actively supervise and maintain fair competition in the market.
Helping enterprises participate in international competition
Lighting products are an important part of serving national infrastructure construction and industrial and agricultural development, and are also important consumer goods for people's livelihood. Standards, as a "diffuser" and "booster" of scientific and technological achievements and a "weather vane" for industrial development, establish the "best order" and provide a "common language" for scientific and technological innovation activities. During the period of rapid development of fluorescent lamps, my country promptly added requirements for mercury content limits in relevant national standards, took the lead in formulating international standards for mercury content testing of fluorescent lamps, and carried out voluntary certification of low (micro) mercury in fluorescent lamp products. These measures not only enabled us to take the initiative in participating in international convention negotiations and subsequent compliance work, but also greatly promoted the scientific and technological innovation of industry enterprises in a series of production and research and development of materials, process technology, production equipment, and testing technology for fluorescent lamp production, making my country's fluorescent lamp manufacturing capacity lead the world. In the process of rapid development of LED lighting, standards still play the same role. Several revisions of LED lighting product energy efficiency standards, the development of smart and healthy lighting related standards, and the formulation of green and low-carbon related standards that are being promoted have all promoted the technological innovation and development of enterprises.
Cheng Jinrui, director of the Comprehensive Business Department of the National Standard Technical Review Center, interpreted the national standard formulation and revision management policy in detail. He emphasized that the current standard formulation work presents three major trends: strengthening of mandatory standard project establishment, accelerating international standard conversion, and mutual communication between group standards and national standards. "The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the health, life and property safety of the people, and require the formulation of mandatory national standards for the contents related to these aspects, and promote the standards related to safety to be "as strong as possible and as strong as possible". The project establishment of mandatory national standards has been greatly strengthened, and some national standards related to the safety of the people have been established, such as "Safety Technical Specifications for Electric Bicycles", "Household Gas Cookers", "Metal Coated Hose for Connection of Gas Appliances", "Sanitary Requirements for Bulk Transportation of Edible Vegetable Oil", etc., both the number of projects and the number of standards issued have doubled compared with the previous period." Cheng Jinrui said.
In addition, Cheng Jinrui also introduced that the "National Standardization Development Outline" clearly requires the national standard conversion rate to reach 85%; the Standards and Technology Department issued a notice on December 30, 2024, requiring the acceleration of international standardization work. For these requirements, each TC (Technical Committee for Standardization) and each enterprise can track the conversion of corresponding international standards and speed up analysis and judgment. For those that need to be converted into national standards, submit an application for the project establishment of the standard adoption project as soon as possible. At the same time, we must avoid rushing into it and blindly adopting standards without fully considering the actual domestic situation, which will lead to the conversion of some international standards that are of little practical use into national projects. Regarding the intercommunication between group standards and national standards, which is of particular concern to enterprises, Cheng Jinrui said that excellent group standards can enter the national standard system through the recommended national standard adoption channel. The adoption conditions include being formulated and issued by groups that meet the standards of good behavior, the technical content is leading and leading, and meets the needs and scope of standard promotion and formulation. It has been implemented for 2 years and the implementation effect is good.
Draw a blueprint for high-quality development
During the meeting, many experts and enterprise representatives exchanged views on topics such as standardization policies, quality evaluation, testing and certification.
Zheng Juan, director of the Product Certification Division of China Quality Certification Center Co., Ltd., shared the theme of how to help the high-quality development of the lighting appliance industry through certification work. Liang Xiuying, a researcher at the Resource and Environment Branch of the China National Institute of Standardization, introduced the energy efficiency labeling system and related standardization work in the lighting field. Zhao Jianming, Secretary General of the Artificial Leather and Synthetic Leather Sub-Technical Committee of the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Plastic Products, introduced the experience of how enterprises can promote their own development through standardization work. Zhang Wei, Deputy Director of the National Electric Light Source Quality Supervision and Inspection Center (Beijing), introduced the latest developments of international standards in the lighting field and their impact on the development of the industry. Boris Thelen, Technical Director of Home and Commercial Products in VDE China, introduced the new EU regulations to strengthen the cybersecurity management of digital products. Chen Jian, Deputy Director of Zhongshan Customs Technical Center of China WTO/TBT-SPS National Notification and Consultation Center, shared the work priorities and practical cases of the lighting industry in response to foreign technical trade barriers. Yu Ling, Director of the Mechanical and Electrical Products and Components Testing Center of China Household Electrical Appliances Research Institute, introduced the situation of the lighting product risk monitoring project. Li Chuanqin, Assistant General Manager and General Manager of the Automotive Lighting Division of Foshan Electric Lighting Co., Ltd., shared development suggestions on how enterprises can gain operational competitiveness through product compliance. Li Qian, Deputy Director of the Optics Institute of the Far Eastern Optoelectronics Science Research Institute of Hangzhou Far Eastern Optoelectronic Information Co., Ltd., introduced the latest progress in international optical radiation measurement and standardization. Zhu Caiping, Director of the Technical Management Department of Changzhou Xingyu Automotive Lighting Co., Ltd., shared the content of the core standards for automotive exterior lighting and optical signal devices. Yang Yue, Chairman of Shanghai Times Lighting Appliance Testing Co., Ltd., introduced the ideas and framework of the quality assessment of key products in the lighting industry.
Three group standards jointly managed by the China Light Industry Federation and the China Lighting Appliance Association were officially released at the meeting, namely "Greenhouse Gas Product Carbon Footprint Quantification Method and Requirements Lamps", "Greenhouse Gas Product Carbon Footprint Quantification Method and Requirements Light Sources", and "Greenhouse Gas Product Carbon Footprint Quantification Method and Requirements Control Devices". The conference also issued certificates to the first batch of companies that obtained "Household Solar Photovoltaic Lighting Product Certification" and "Offline Voice Control Lamps Excellent Product Certification", marking a key step for the lighting industry in the field of green and low-carbon.
