It is boom-time for the LED (light- emiting diode) light fixture market in the Middle East region which is set to register a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13 per cent from 2015 hrough 2022 in terms of revenues, said a report released ahead of an industry event.

LuxLive Middle East, said to be the Middle East region's only dedicated LED lighting event, will kick off on April 13 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

The two-day exhibition and conference will showcase the latest LED lighting innovations from 40 top brands and hold a massive outreach educational programme, explaining how to specify LEDs.

In 2015, the MEA luminaire market was worth $2.35 billion, not including lamps, according to Strategies Unlimited.

The region was later to adopt LED lighting than other parts of the world, such as Europe, but its adoption is accelerating as many vertical markets such as retail, commercial and industrial approach the 'tipping point', it stated.

Philip Smallwood, the director of Research LEDs and Lighting at Strategies Unlimited, said: "We are seeing tremendous growth in the LED luminaire market in the MEA region today and expect this to continue through 2022."

"While LED luminaires make up 20 per cent of the market today, by 2022 we forecast that they will comprise approximately 49 per cent of the total market," he stated.

Despite the fall in the oil price over the last few years, the Middle East market for LED fixtures and systems is expected to remain buoyant as government investments stabilise and private investments continue.

Events such as the Expo in Dubai in 2020 and the Fifa World Cup in Qatar in 2022 will deliver solid impetus to growth in the GCC region, especially in the hospitality market. The latter is increasingly using the latest lighting and controls as a differentiator.

Other factors driving the market to LEDs is the reduction in energy subsidies by many governments in the region and changing attitudes to the suitability of LED lighting in the Middle East.

Faraz Izhar, the senior lighting designer at Abu Dhabi-based KEO International Consultants, said: "There's a mindset here - especially in Abu Dhabi - that LEDs are expensive and don't deliver. But that attitude is slowly changing."

"Everybody knows, for instance, that LED luminaires can more than cope with the Middle East's heat conditions," explained Izhar.

"If we are proposing to substitute LEDs for compact fluorescent, we show clients that although LEDs cost twice as much, in the long run there is a saving. Three years ago the LED would have been five times the price of the LED," he added.-TradeArabia News Service