“Extremely encouraging” is how National Lighting Bureau Executive Director John Bachner characterized second-quarter 2013 performance of the NEMA Lighting Systems Index (LSI), which posted its strongest showing since the third quarter of 2008. “The quarter-to-quarter increase was 2.4%; not earth-shattering, to be sure, but it was the third consecutive quarterly increase, and represents an almost-5% increase in lighting-equipment shipments on a year-over-year basis.
 
NEMA’s LSI (www.nlb.org/Index) is a composite measure of luminaires, ballasts, miniature lamps, large lamps, and emergency lighting shipped throughout the United States by the lighting-equipment manufacturers of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA). Adjusted for seasonality and inflation, the Index uses 2002 data for its 100-point benchmark.
 
According to NEMA Director of Statistical Operations Stacey Harrison, second-quarter 2013 LSI performance was paced by increased demand for fixtures, emergency lamps, and miniature lamps; shipments of ballasts and large lamps declined.
 
Addressing the future, Bachner commented that “the outlook for residential construction still remains bright, although the government shutdown, political wrangling in Washington, D.C., and higher mortgage rates seem to be depressing homebuilders’ optimism; a modest near-term decline is possible. The nonresidential-construction market remains slow, but economists are somewhat consistent in a belief that we’ll see a turn-around in the first quarter of 2014, thanks to a growing housing market, robust domestic-energy production, higher employment, and healthier local, state, and federal tax revenues.”
 
Established in 1976, the National Lighting Bureau is an independent, IRS-recognized not-for-profit, educational foundation that has served as a trusted lighting-information source since 1976.