Jiaxing, Zhejiang province saw CHEAA's Refrigerator Committee Meeting on June 16th, 2016. This meeting brought together Wang Lei, vice president of CHEAA, Cheng Jianhong, director of the branch of Resource and Environment under China National Institute of Standardization, and representatives from leading refrigerator makers and key compressor makers to discuss issues emerging from the implementation of new standardization law, the industry trends and the industry development.
Cheng Jiandong started out by introducing issues that might emerge from the implementation of new standards for refrigerators. Cheng said, energy rating for refrigerators under new standards had kicked off and these standards would be the only running ones after officially take effect starting October 1st. With specific rules under approval, it is not clear yet how long the transition from existing label to new label will last while new labels are required to be attached since October 1st. In addition, data discrepancies between the nameplate and the label are allowed yet must be identified. Products made under the new standards are allowed to go on sale before October 1st. Some representatives offered that refrigerators featuring special technologies on freshness maintaining and sterilization be given extra credits when they are rated. Cheng said, this offer could be adopted possibly, but for now, he suggested enterprises to consider shutting down these functions when their products are under test. In addition, he proposed to discuss ways to streamline testing procedures and suggested enterprises to reduce product models. He said, "We've already have several ten thousands of product models in our pool and it burdens the testing heavily."
According to Cheng, National Alliance of Green Design Industry Products is considering making Technical Standards for Green Design Products Evaluation: Refrigerators and is set to seek public opinion at the end of June.
Wan Chunhui, director of CHEAA's department of laws and standards, briefed representatives the outline of Report on Refrigerator Industry, which is due to be done by the end of the year, and she sought group opinions on it.
Wan also briefed two surveys on common quality issues of refrigerators: a survey on home appliance enterprises in Qingdao and Guangdong launched by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in May 2016, and a survey on "variety, quality and brand" of products launched by refrigerator committee of CHEAA. These surveys present a number of common issues of refrigerator industry, such as quality loss in logistics, standardization of basic components and parts, reliability of electric control panel, quality of cooling pipe welding, tank crack and verification and evaluation of quick designs. Besides, representatives proposed suggestions on ways to upgrade customer satisfaction, advance innovation and build self-developed brands in overseas market, and discussed the prospect of refrigerator as the smart control center of a household, and room for market growth.
In addition, representatives from Haier, Samsung and Midea shared their views on refrigerator industry. Li Xiaofeng, product planning director of Haier Refrigerator, delivered a report titled The Influence of Consumption Upgrade on Refrigerator Industry. According to Li, China refrigerator industry is affected by various factors, such as macroscopically, mounting pressure on China economy, urbanization and the development of e-commerce, and microscopically, a younger and more characteristic group of consumers, upgraded household consumption, and consumers' preferences for a sophisticated life style and concerns about health. As a result, industry players modernize the product structure and functions accordingly, while consumers are looking at refrigerators that are high-end, smart, energy-efficient and with pleasing style and large capacity. And according to him, built-in refrigerators are establishing presence in first-tier cities of China.
Cai Yi, chief engineer of Suzhou Samsung, delivered a report titled Technical Trends of Refrigerator Industry. According to Cai, refrigerator industry is on a technical trend towards refrigerators featuring large capacity, energy efficiency, smart freshness-keeping technology, smart control and an increased quality and class.
Gan Yonghe, deputy manager of Midea's refrigerator segment, made a speech titled Issues Emerged from the Industrial Transformation of Refrigerator Industry. He said, China refrigerator industry must leverage its strengths to make high-quality products, turning challenges into opportunities. According to him, the strongest competition of China home appliance industry is itself in the coming ten years. China refrigerator industry have strong people, parts and accessories makers, technology and products globally. He said, "If we pay more attention to quality, technology and cost, we could build better brands since quality is the key to industry upgrade. While holding a position in global market, China home appliance industry has the capability to build high-end brands. But it need to be done in 10 years from now."
According to vice president of CHEAA Wang Lei, as one of the fastest-growing industries in China, refrigerator industry saw a fast and steady improvement in its technology. But under the influence of macro economy, refrigerator market experiences a lower but steady growth, hitting a historic low since 1980s. But this could turn into an opportunity if industry insiders think more about ways to further develop the industry, issues hindering the industry development, common problems of the industry and joint efforts to address them.
The meeting ended after making further arrangements about the committee's work afterwards. Representatives visited the compressor line of Jiaxipera after the meeting, and made exchanges with Jiaxipera.