5 Things to Know: July 25

According to the Guangdong Guangya Lighting Research Institute, China's lighting exports totaled $24.11 billion in the first half of 2026, down 6.8% year over year. LED lighting exports alone fell 6.7%, to $18.79 billion. The institute counts just one quarter of growth, the fourth quarter of 2024, across 16 consecutive quarters dating back to the third quarter of 2022, with every other quarter posting a decline.

The US market has fared worse than the overall trend. First-half exports to the US dropped 17.8%, to $4.5 billion, and now account for just 18.7% of China's total lighting exports, down 3.5%age points from a year earlier. The institute noted that share once approached 30%, with US-bound exports nearing $18 billion annually.

Price deflation compounds the volume decline. LED bulb export prices have fallen nearly 70% over the past decade, LED tubes nearly 40%, as manufacturers compete on price for a shrinking base of business.

Tariff pressure has since intensified. The Section 122 tariff expired July 24, and the US has now implemented the replacement Section 301 tariff at 10% to 12.5%, targeting China alongside dozens of other trading partners.

Iowa-based Musco Lighting, the largest player in US sports lighting, has opened its first Middle East manufacturing facility in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The plant includes a 60,300-square-foot building for manufacturing and offices, plus a roughly 366,000-square-foot yard for shipping, receiving, and inventory.

The move follows Musco's existing footprint in the kingdom, where its systems already light venues including King Fahd Sports City Stadium and the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. The company said Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Investment and MODON helped secure the site and navigate licensing.

Above: Musco executives and Saudi officials mark the opening of Musco Lighting's new Dammam manufacturing facility

Musco is also working with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation on youth soccer development ahead of the 2034 World Cup, including a Mini-Pitch modular system installed in February near Riyadh. The company said each Mini-Pitch serves roughly 10,000 kids annually, with more planned.

Onsite production is already underway. Musco's first Dammam-built fixtures rolled off the line in June, following a March milestone building electrical enclosures bound for the King Abdulaziz Horse Center in Riyadh.

According to an editorial published on the IEEE Spectrum website, the usual light pollution conversation undersells what LED technology can actually do. Writer Paul Bogard, touring London and Paris with lighting designers and researchers, argues the real failure isn't the LED itself but the absence of digital control. He points to the DALI protocol, which turns each streetlight into an addressable node reporting to a central server, cutting maintenance visits and enabling dimming schedules tied to time of night rather than a simple on-off switch.

The piece also flags an overlooked contributor: "bleed lighting" from office towers left lit floor by floor overnight, and the Jevons paradox effect, where cheaper LEDs simply invite more of them. France gets specific credit for a 2019 law restricting upward light spill and mandating store lighting shut off after 1 a.m., plus "trame noire," dark ecological corridors designed to protect nocturnal wildlife. The editorial closes by tying reduced blue-spectrum lighting to visible night skies, framing it less as a sacrifice than as an underused capability of the same technology already installed.

A homeowner named Phillips, a town named Sylvania. Given that setup, it is no surprise the local news I-Team found over 2 ½ minutes of airtime for a lighting story unfolding in a local cul-de-sac.

According to the WTOL 11 News in Toledo, a Sylvania, Ohio, neighborhood has spent more than a year waiting for electric utility First Energy to replace a streetlight knocked down last summer. In the meantime, resident Sean Phillips' wife planted black-eyed Susans in the stump where the pole used to stand. The exposed wires are reportedly still live, wrapped in duct tape, which Phillips noted could double as a publicly funded charging station, a detail the I-Team dutifully preserved for posterity.

Neighbors say the real issue is a blind curve now unlit at night, with cars reportedly ending up in a neighbor's lawn more than once. Phillips said he has called First Energy twice, along with the city and police. WTOL reached out to First Energy for comment and, as of airtime, had not heard back.

Every week, thousands of lighting professionals read the Inside Lighting InfoLetter. One feature that usually stays exclusive to newsletter subscribers is our Local Markets roundup, tracking manufacturer rep changes and line card updates across the U.S. and Canada. If you're not a subscriber, here's a look at what you missed this week.

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• Boston: Apex Lighting Solutions has partnered with G&G LED

   

• Upstate NY:

  • Lightspec is the new rep for Power Built

  • Point Source Group now represents 3G Lighting

   

• North Jersey: Moxie Lighting is the new agent for Alloy LED, Anolis Lighting, Bover, BuzziSpace, Delta Light Group, Gateway International 360, and JDRF Electromag

   

• Pittsburgh:

  • Lightspec has added Power Built and Synapse to its line card

  • REPCO II has partnered with Windfall + Cambio

   

• Baltimore/DC/NoVA: Chesapeake Lighting is the new rep for Staco Energy Products Co.

   

• Charlotte, Nashville, Memphis, TN, Atlanta, Orlando, Alabama, and Louisville, KY: SESCO Lighting now represents Power Built

   

• South Carolina:

  • Creative Lighting Solutions is the new agent for Secto Design

  • SESCO Lighting has added Power Built to its line card

   

• Tampa: Envision Lighting Systems has partnered with Tom Dixon

   

• New Orleans:

  • Bell & McCoy Lighting and Controls is the new rep for Penta

  • SESCO Lighting now represents Power Built

   

• Cleveland:

  • Lighting Dynamics is the new agent for Absolux and Landscape Forms

  • Lighting & Controls has added L.C. Doane to its line card

  • Lightspec has partnered with Power Built and Synapse

   

• Columbus, OH:

  • Lighting Dynamics is the new rep for Absolux

  • Lightspec now represents Power Built and Synapse

   

• Detroit and Grand Rapids: Makes sense... Michigan Lighting Systems is the new agent for Cence

   

• Chicago: A+M has added Arancia Lighting Inc. to its line card

   

• Wisconsin and Minnesota: JTH Lighting Alliance has partnered with Finelite

   

• St. Louis:

  • Convergence is the new rep for Miora Luminaire

  • Lighting Associates, LLC now represents MaxiLED

   

• Iowa: CSLA is the new agent for Filix

   

• Kansas City:

  • Convergence has added Miora Luminaire to its line card

  • Premier Lighting & Controls has partnered with Filix

   

• Oklahoma and Dallas: Bell & McCoy Lighting and Controls is the new rep for Penta

   

• Austin, TX: Legacy Lighting now represents BuzziSpace

   

• Las Vegas: Nevada Lighting is the new agent for ZLED

   

• Los Angeles: LINX Lighting + Controls has added Windfall + Cambio to its line card

   

• San Francisco: sixteen5hundred has partnered with Windfall + Cambio

   

• Spokane, WA: Ambient Lighting is the new rep for Ambient Lighting

   

• Calgary: Prolux Lighting now represents Primus Lighting