Electric Lighting and Wiring Equipment
SIC 3640
NAICS 3351
Lighting and wiring equipment manufacturers supply such myriad electrical goods as light bulbs, lighting fixtures, electrical outlets, switches, fuses, and similar devices, and hardware for commercial and residential electrical service.
The electric lighting and wiring equipment industry incorporates a wide variety of products and companies. It includes among its major players some of the largest diversified corporations in the world, and mergers and acquisitions are common. The various facets of this broad field constitute a multibillion-dollar industry. Due to the global nature of the industry, most manufacturers were able to stay competitive. Whenever one nation's economy suffers, thereby impacting sales, there are numerous customers in other parts of the world to counterbalance the lost revenue.
A highly competitive industry, lighting and wiring equipment manufacturers move quickly to meet changing environmental and economic demands. Few revolutionary technological breakthroughs have occurred in recent years and, as a result, most companies' research and development (R&D) efforts were focused on increasing the energy efficiency of lighting fixtures and related electrical devices to accommodate the demand for environmentally sound, efficient products. Still, lighting and wiring manufacturers continue to seek new markets, which has led them to address specialized needs such as highway, emergency, entertainment venue, and landscape lighting.
Closely tied to construction and renovation activity, growth in the lighting and wiring categories depends largely on general economic health and projections, and thus the climate for building, in each country. While the incandescent bulb is still the mainstay all over the world, manufacturers are increasing offerings to the construction industry. In times of economic bounty, there is more demand for specialized and customized products.
The U.S. lighting industry was steadily increasing in the mid-2000s— after a downturn during the recession of the early part of the century— largely due to new construction and the growing remodeling and renovation market sectors. In 2003, the lighting industry was up 5 percent, to more than US$5 billion. In the United States, lighting products were expected to account for around 30 percent of electrical distribution sales in 2005, reaching $26 billion. Worldwide, the market was valued at about US$12 billion in 2003 according to an analyst from Strategies Unlimited. Globally, the lighting market was expected to grow about 6.2 percent annually through 2008, according to a December 2004 report by the Freedonia Group. In the mid-2000s, China was the largest exporter to, and one of the largest importers from, the U.S. market. By 2004, China's market accounted for more than 80 percent of all U.S. lamp and lighting imports. Lamp imports, which totaled US$166 million in 2001 and US$409 million in 2002, increased another 8 percent in 2003.
Most of the leaders in production and sales of electric lighting and wiring equipment are divisions of major, diversified international corporations. Maximizing the potential financial impact of increased international trade through agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has proven to be a major springboard for many of these and smaller corporations. Increasingly, companies, especially in the United States, manufactured products overseas where labor is significantly cheaper, and imported them back into other markets for sale, a trend that caused imports to surge in the 1990s.
While lighting is an essential aspect of life in industrialized countries, production levels of the lighting industry are linked to the notoriously cyclical construction industry. During periods when relatively few houses and office buildings are erected, fewer lighting fixtures are sold. Conversely, when the construction industry is booming, sales of lighting fixtures are also strong. The 1980s saw a period of unparalleled real estate construction worldwide, with the downtowns and peripheries of large cities undergoing extensive expansion and refurbishment. In the early 1990s, construction inevitably slowed before a mild upturn in the mid-1990s. A decade later, construction would be back on the rise.
Production and sales of wiring were largely dependent on nonresidential building, of which there was substantial growth in the mid-1990s. However, fluctuations in that segment were far more dramatic and commonplace than for residential construction, to which the lighting industry was closely linked. Non-current-carrying wiring devices, in particular, derived the vast majority of applications from nonresidential construction.
Environmental concerns continued to play a major role in the industry. Because most countries spend a substantial amount of electricity on lighting (close to one-quarter in the United States), the industry has seen pressure from the outside and from internal competition to develop more energy-efficient products. In 1997, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiated a voluntary Energy Star program, which encouraged manufacturers of electric lighting equipment to produce lighting that emits less carbon dioxide, sulfur oxide, and nitrogen oxide while simultaneously realizing cost-saving benefits.
The first electric light was invented in 1860 by English physicist Joseph W. Swan. He created a vacuum inside a glass bulb that allowed a small piece of carbonized paper to burn for a short time. However, it was difficult to maintain the perfect vacuum pressure required for steady, consistent burning. Nevertheless, Swan's work paved the way for Thomas Alva Edison, a young New Jersey scientist, to invent the electric light in 1879. In that year, both inventors developed a way to manufacture reliable electric light bulbs by putting the filament inside the bulb, pumping out the air, and then sealing it up. Early successes relied on platinum wires to conduct the electricity into the bulb, but subsequent experiments revealed that...
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