Digital50: News and more Business News

Digital50: News and more Business News: "US demand for lamps is projected to advance 5.0 percent per year through 2011 to $6.8 billion. Growth will be driven by a shift in product mix away from inexpensive incandescent lamps toward more expensive, energy efficient lamps such as compact fluorescents (CFLs). Strong new and improvement and repair nonresidential building construction activity through 2011 will bolster demand for lamps. Advances will also benefit from a modest recovery in motor vehicle production and greater lamp use per vehicle, which includes the use of higher-priced high intensity discharge lamps and halogens instead of conventional incandescent lamps. However, the switch to longer-lived lamps such as CFLs will dampen replacement demand in the longer term. Unit price increases for lamps will be constrained by alternative lighting products, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) and fiber optics, and by import competition. For example, LEDs pose a particularly strong competitive threat to lamps in smaller markets such as motor vehicles and indicator lighting. This competition will continue to place pricing pressures on lamp manufacturers, particularly as the prices of LEDs and other competitive technologies fall themselves. Low cost lamp imports, particularly in the incandescent, fluorescent and halogen segments, will continue to penetrate the U"