Indonesia Energy Ministry: This is the Government’s Strategy to Increase the Competitiveness of the Domestic LED Lighting Industry

The government continues to look for effective strategies so that the LED ( light-emitting diode ) lighting industry is able to compete with the lighting industries of other countries, especially China. Currently, although the local LED industry has produced better quality LED lamps, imported LED lamps still dominate. Therefore, it is necessary to transform the LED lighting market in the country so that the domestic LED industry can compete better and become the host in their own country.

Plt. The Head of the ESDM Research and Development Agency, Dadan Kusdiana, emphasized the importance of increasing competitiveness, one of which was through the Indonesian National Standard (SNI) related to safety and Minimum Energy Performance Standards (SKEM) for LED lighting products. This policy not only increases public confidence in domestic LED lighting products, but also creates a fair and competitive market.

“Increasing competitiveness is very important, so that the production and marketing of LED lights in the country can increase, and can also restore the number of exports,” said Dadan when discussing the ADLIGHT program in Bogor (27/7).

Dadan explained that the demand for LED lights continues to increase from year to year, but it is not in line with the growth of the lighting industry in the country. In 2013, the demand reached 15 million units and increased to 310 million units in 2019. Unfortunately, the domestic LED industry only accounts for a small part of the demand for these LED lamps. On the other hand, the number of Indonesian lamp exports also decreased.

“What is more important is that the use of high-efficiency LED lamps will contribute greatly to achieving the government’s commitment to net zero emissions in the energy sector,” added Dadan.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources together with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) are implementing the Advancing Indonesia’s Lighting Market to High Efficient Technologies (ADLIGHT) project to increase the competitiveness of the domestic LED lighting industry. The ADLIGHT project in collaboration with the Research and Development Center for Electricity Technology, New Energy, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (P3TKEBTKE) has conducted a survey of a number of domestic LED lighting manufacturers from early June to mid-July 2021.

Head of P3TKEBTKE, Dr. Hariyanto, explained that the results of the ADLIGHT survey prove that the domestic lighting industry has a high capacity, good technology, and has complete production equipment so that it is able to produce high quality products. Supposedly, the quality of domestic lighting products can compete in the market.

This was agreed by the National Project Manager of ADLIGT, Emil Salim. Emil said that although the quality of domestic LED products is not inferior to imported products, the price factor and public perception of the quality of local products are a number of reasons that make domestic products unable to compete. Low demand makes it difficult for local manufacturers to obtain economies of scale and therefore unable to reduce production costs.

One of the market segments that can become the mainstay of the domestic LED industry is the government segment. There are still many street lighting devices (APJ), government buildings, state-owned enterprises, hospitals, universities, and others that use non-energy efficient lamps. Due to the government-controlled procurement process, lamp replacement in this segment can be gradually pushed towards the use of domestically made LED lamps.

“For example, local governments may require the use of domestic LED lighting products in the procurement of APJ and the construction of new office buildings,” concluded Emil.

On that occasion, companies that are members of the Indonesian Electric Lighting Industry Association (APERLINDO) have stated their readiness if the SNI for LED lighting safety is required by the government. The chairman of APERLINDO, John Manoppo stated that the demand for LED lights in the country will continue to grow and APERLINDO members are ready to meet the market demand. (IAI/ER/KO)