LED lights market will suffer more if additional 10% tariff is imposed in September

On August 1, 2019, American President Donald Trump announced an additional 10% tariff on US$300 billion China-made goods which will come into effect in September 1. The newly listed products for added tax also cover several LED products.

LED products in the new 10% tariff list cover "Ballasts for discharge lamps or tubes", "electrical lighting equipment of a kind used on bicycles", "LED flashlights", and a series of electrical filament lamps, as well as LED lamps.



According to China Association of Lighting Industry, these LED lights in the new list took 18.2% of Chinese lighting exports to the US in the year 2018, which value more than US$ billion. Among which, the export value of "LED lamps" was US$1.768 billion in the year 2018. All these products listed have not been charged with extra tariffs last year.

Since the year 2018, the U.S. administration has imposed additional tariffs on China-made imported product. Currently, all the listed products are charged with 25% additional taxes. For this reason, a couple of l U.S.-based lighting companies such as  Acuity Brands and Eation have increased prices of their LED lights they are selling. Meanwhile, many LED lights factories are also moving their production lines from China to Vietnam or other southeast asian countries to avoid the extra cost.

Supply chain of the LED industry was also affected by the sino-us trade war. World-famous LED lights suppliers such as Osram and Signify have reported sales decline in their recent quarterly reports this year as uncertainty of the global LED market is still there. Semiconductors equipment makers like AIXTRON and VEECO also announced very slow business peformance as manufacturers are not willing to make production expansion investment.