1.0https://lightingrecipe.com/deLRS Adminhttps://lightingrecipe.com/de/author/77026pwpadmin/rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="5f9MyGyym7"><a href="https://lightingrecipe.com/de/more-volume-less-value/">More Volume, Less Value</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://lightingrecipe.com/de/more-volume-less-value/embed/#?secret=5f9MyGyym7" width="600" height="338" title="„More Volume, Less Value“ – " data-secret="5f9MyGyym7" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); //# sourceURL=https://lightingrecipe.com/wp-includes/js/wp-embed.min.js /* ]]> */ </script>The Lighting Industry Does Not Lack a Market — It Lacks the Power to Move Up By Lawrence Lin | Founder & CEO, Lighting Recipe Studio | Chairman, GLGA There is a painful truth behind the lighting industry today. The market has not disappeared. Factories are still busy. Products are still shipped. Projects are still specified. Luminaires are still installed. Homes, offices, schools, hospitals, streets and cities still need light. And yet, many lighting manufacturers are struggling with the same reality: More volume, less value. More competition, less margin. More products, less differentiation. More lighting, but not necessarily better light. This is the real crisis. The lighting industry does not lack a market. It lacks the collective power — and perhaps the collective courage — to move upward. 1. China’s lighting exports reveal the truth: volume remains, value is falling In May 2026, China’s total merchandise exports reached USD 376.78 billion, up 19.4% year-on-year. At first glance, the broader export picture looks strong. But lighting tells a different story. China’s lighting product exports in May 2026 were around USD 4.18 billion, down 9.2% year-on-year. From January to May 2026, cumulative lighting exports reached around USD 19.29 billion, down 7.9% year-on-year. LED lighting still accounts for the majority of lighting exports, around 77.6%. But this dominance does not mean strength. In many categories, the more important pattern is clear: The industry is still shipping, but value is being compressed. This is not simply a demand problem. It is a value problem. It is not that the world no longer needs lighting. It is that too much lighting has become too standardized, too comparable, too interchangeable and too easy to push into price competition. The result is brutal but simple: The industry is producing volume, but failing to retain value. 2. Signify’s strategy is useful as a mirror — but not enough as leadership Signify’s 2026 Capital Markets Day offers an important view into how a global lighting leader sees the market. Its message is clear: the overall market is stabilizing, connected lighting is growing, conventional lamps continue to decline, and adjacent systems present new value pools. From a capital markets perspective, the narrative is logical: Build growth areas. Harvest declining businesses. Reduce exposure to commoditized manufacturing. Improve margins. Manage cash flow. Simplify structure. Focus on selected countries and segments. These are valid business actions. But let us be honest. This is not enough. For a company with such historical influence in the lighting industry, the question should not only be: How can we protect shareholder value? The deeper question should be: How can we raise the value of lighting itself? If the global leaders of the industry only respond to commoditization by restructuring internally, harvesting mature categories, reducing exposure and telling a better capital story, then who will lead the industry toward better light? Who will take responsibility for the fact that many current lighting regulations, standards and implementation practices still do not guarantee that users actually receive good light? Who will help move the industry beyond minimum compliance? Who will invest seriously in measurable, verifiable, human-centered lighting quality? This is where I believe the lighting industry’s leading companies — including Signify and others — must examine themselves more deeply. They should not merely adapt to the downward pressure. They should help reverse it. 3. The real issue is not “lighting demand” — it is the definition of value For decades, the lighting industry has been too comfortable with a narrow definition of value. Efficiency. Cost. Lumen per watt. Payback period. Replacement volume. Channel price. Project discount. These things matter. But they are not enough. Lighting is not just an electrical product. Lighting shapes visual comfort, biological timing, sleep, alertness, safety, atmosphere, productivity, learning environments, healing spaces and urban experience. Yet in many markets, lighting is still specified, sold, purchased and installed as if it were only a commodity hardware category. This is the root of the problem. When the industry only sells light as hardware, it is forced into hardware competition. When it only competes on cost, it loses the ability to defend value. When it only complies with minimum standards, it cannot prove that people are actually receiving good light. The industry should not be surprised that margins are falling. It has spent too many years teaching the market to value lighting too narrowly. 4. Existing standards and regulations are not enough to guarantee good light This is perhaps the most uncomfortable point. Many lighting products can pass regulations and still fail to deliver a truly good light environment. A space may comply with basic illuminance requirements, yet still suffer from poor spectral quality, high glare, inappropriate timing, excessive flicker, poor contrast, uncomfortable vertical exposure or insufficient circadian support. A product may be efficient, but not human-friendly. A project may be compliant, but not genuinely good for users. This is why I have repeatedly emphasized: We should not only ask whether a product meets the minimum standard. We should ask whether the person in the space actually receives good light. Current lighting standards and regulatory frameworks are still too fragmented, too product-oriented and too weak in connecting laboratory data with real human exposure in real spaces. The industry needs a new layer of value language: Spectral quality. Flicker quality. Vertical eye-level exposure. Melanopic EDI and DER. Glare management. Temporal dynamics. Spatial distribution. Control logic. Verification after installation. Long-term monitoring. Without this, “good light” remains a slogan. And slogans cannot rebuild industry value. 5. Connected lighting should not become another capital story Connected lighting is often presented as the next growth engine. That is true — but only partially. Connected lighting has potential because it can move lighting from product to system. It can enable control, sensing, energy management, diagnostics, user adaptation and building integration. But connected lighting must not become just another way to sell more expensive hardware or lock customers into platforms. The real value of connected lighting should be: If connected lighting does not improve the quality of light people actually experience, then it is only another layer of complexity. The industry does not need more complexity. It needs better outcomes. 6. Adjacent systems are promising — but lighting must not lose its soul Energy efficiency, smart cities, security, health and wellbeing, entertainment and intelligent buildings are all important new value pools. Lighting can become an entry point into these systems because it is everywhere. Lighting is powered. Lighting is distributed. Lighting is close to people. Lighting is embedded in buildings and cities. This gives lighting a unique strategic position. But there is also a risk. If lighting companies chase adjacent systems without strengthening the core value of light itself, they may become technology assemblers rather than leaders of the lighting profession. The future of lighting should not be reduced to sensors, dashboards and subscription models. Those are tools. The core question remains: Does the light improve human experience? If the answer is no, then the industry has not moved up. It has only moved sideways. 7. China’s lighting manufacturers should not only follow — they should rise Chinese lighting manufacturers should study global leaders, but not worship them. China has real strengths: Manufacturing depth. Supply chain speed. Engineering flexibility. Cost efficiency. Fast product iteration. Strong export execution. Entrepreneurial energy. But these strengths must now be directed toward higher value. The next stage is not about making more cheap lights. It is about building better light systems. Chinese manufacturers need to move from: OEM to ODM and OBM. Products to systems. Hardware to data. Price to performance. Compliance to verification. Shipping to lifecycle value. Lighting supply to lighting responsibility. This is not easy. But it is necessary. Because if China remains only the world’s lowest-cost lighting production base, it will continue to carry volume while losing value. That is not a sustainable future. 8. What industry leaders should do differently The lighting industry needs leadership that is more ambitious than restructuring. Leading companies should invest in: Better lighting standards. Better human-centered metrics. Better design tools. Better field verification methods. Better data interoperability. Better education for specifiers and owners. Better control of flicker, glare and spectral quality. Better measurement of real exposure in real spaces. Better ways to connect lighting with health, safety and sustainability. This is where industry leadership should show courage. Not only in capital allocation. But in raising the floor and lifting the ceiling of the whole industry. A true leader should not simply survive commoditization. A true leader should make commoditization harder by helping the market understand why better light matters. 9. The next battle is not for more orders — it is for higher value The lighting industry must stop asking only: How do we get more orders? How do we lower cost? How do we defend market share? How do we restructure for margin? These are necessary questions, but not sufficient. The bigger questions are: This is the real strategic battlefield. Because the lighting industry does not lack a market. It lacks upward force. It lacks a stronger value language. It lacks the courage to tell the market that not all light is equal. 10. Conclusion: win back value by making light better The future of lighting will not belong to those who only wait for demand to recover. It will not belong to those who only cut costs. It will not belong to those who only restructure internally. It will not belong to those who only tell capital stories. It will belong to those who can rebuild the meaning of value in lighting. Better light must become measurable. Good light must become verifiable. Human-centered lighting must become deliverable. Standards must move closer to real users. Manufacturers must move beyond hardware. Industry leaders must take responsibility for the whole ecosystem. China’s lighting industry does not lack factories. It does not lack engineers. It does not lack supply chains. It does not lack markets. What it needs now is the power to move upward. Because the next battle is not about producing more light. It is about proving, delivering and defending better light. More volume is not enough. The industry must win back value.https://lightingrecipe.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/img33.jpg11221402