Breaking through the certification threshold, Chinese LED companies enter the US market

Recently, the American LED Association organized mainstream domestic LED lighting companies such as Shenzhen and Zhongshan to sell products in the U.S. market, which means that the production and sales of domestic LED lighting will usher in greater room for development. However, according to the reporter's understanding, the biggest threshold for Chinese LED companies to enter the US market is to obtain UL certification, and UL certification is expensive every year. In this regard, the industry believes that UL certification is not a threshold, but a way to promote companies to improve product quality.

Chinese companies are seizing the U.S. LED market

In early 2013, the U.S. government began to introduce a step-by-step plan to replace tungsten lamps. In accordance with relevant laws, it "first banned the production and sales of tungsten lamps with the largest energy consumption of more than 100 watts."

According to Yu Lingyun, chairman of the American LED Association, as the world's largest consumer and importer of home building materials, the U.S. government has realized that LED is Tungsten lamps must be replaced because tungsten lamps consume electricity and are not environmentally friendly. Semiconductor lighting has led a new light source revolution that does not require heat. When two diodes are connected, light comes out without heat and saves electricity. "But after all, LED products are much more expensive than ordinary tungsten lamps, and the use of tungsten lamps cannot be completely transformed into the use of LED lamps. The US government has enacted a law this year to completely ban the production and use of all tungsten lamps." ”

Ultra-bright, high-power LED devices have been widely used in urban traffic lights in China. LED signal lights are favored by urban traffic management departments for their high brightness, high reliability, low cost of use, long life and other characteristics. "However, there are many places in the United States that do not use LED traffic lights, so the pace of LED popularization in the United States is actually relatively slow, especially when it comes to the application of LED products by ordinary people." Yu Lingyun said.

LED replacement is fast and companies must speed up rectification

It is understood that the biggest threshold for Chinese LED companies to enter the US market is the need to obtain UL certification. Xie Zuhua, general manager of Shenzhen Minbang Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., said in an interview with reporters that UL in the U.S. market is a "stepping stone" to the U.S. LED market. Without UL certification, it is impossible to enter the U.S. market. However, UL certification is expensive every year. A UL certification requires 500,000 yuan, and each certification number costs more than 1,000 US dollars every quarter.

Yu Lingyun mentioned that the cost of producing safety-certified products is much higher than that of products without safety certification, about 50%. When selling safety-certified LED products in the United States, the sales price will also be much higher, by the same margin. "Generally, Take a flat-panel lamp as an example. A square lamp of the same size of 0.6 meters by 0.6 meters is installed on a wall for office lighting. The safety-compliant lamp sells for 150 US dollars, and the non-safety-compliant lamp sells for 100 US dollars. This is a 1.5:1 difference. p>

Ma Yusheng of UL Meihua Certification Co., Ltd. said that the LED industry is developing very rapidly in China, and the certification volume is between 20% and 30%. Because the development of certified products is relatively rapid, there may not be anything to restrict its development for the time being, prompting the export volume of certified products to continue to increase; in addition, the upgrading of LED products is also relatively fast. For China's manufacturing industry, certification is not about obtaining certification, but about improving product quality and rectifying products.