Source: Department of Information Consultancy of CHEAA
1. Performance indicators
Revenue of China’s home appliance industry grew by 12.6% year-on-year to post 346.5 billion RMB in Q1 2018, while its profit took a dip of 0.23% to come to 18.26 billion RMB. Heading into 2018, China’s home appliance industry has maintained a double-digit growth in revenue but seen a slight fall in profit.
2. Domestic sales
(1) Sales performances divide by segment
The past 2017 saw exciting domestic sales with most segments growing by more than 10%. Entering 2018, sales performances divide distinctly by segment.
Sales growth of air conditioners remained fast in Q1, boosted mostly by the needs of third-tier and forth-tier cities. Replacement needs are the major driving force of the almost saturated markets like refrigerators and washers which both saw steady sales growth in Q1 with the former sector facing fiercer market competition. Kitchen appliances posted weak retail sales in Q1 with a dip occurred in both the sales value and volume of hoods and ranges, two categories with strong growing potential in third- and forth-tier cities and rural areas that is yet to be unleashed. Emerging categories including dishwashers enter a period of fast growth, which is expected to boost industry growth strongly.
(2) Online sales of portable appliances slid
Online sales of home appliances also saw dividing performances in Q1 following a broad robust growth in the past two years. Electric rice cookers, electric pressure cookers, induction cookers, air purifiers and water purifiers within portable appliance segment all saw a slide in online sales, signaling a gradually forming competition landscape between online and offline channels in these categories. Online sales of air conditioners, refrigerators, washers, water heaters and hoods grew at a steady pace in Q1.
3. First fall in monthly export value since 2017
Export value of China’s home appliance industry came to a combined 16.192 billion US dollars in Q1 of 2018 with an accelerated growth rate of 15.32% year-on-year, with March alone experiencing an alerting fall of 2.85% year-on-year.
Broken down in categories, export volumes of major home appliances sagged in several categories like refrigerators, freezers, washers, which plummeted by 16
%, and air conditioners in March, but came out pretty good overall in Q1 thanks to the exciting performances of the first two months. Portable appliances also experienced a broad fall in export volumes in March, particularly in sectors such as kitchen appliances, personal care and cloth care. But the general performance in Q1 remained steady.
Exciting figures were posted in exports to major economic regions by aggregated value in Q1, all reaching an all-time high except for Latin America alone.
In year-on-year terms, exports kept the rising trend of last year to grow at a double-digit rate to Asia and Europe, picked up fast from the dip same period last year to North America, and bounced back to its normal level to Latin America. Exports to Africa reversed its negative growth to positive while to Oceania grew at a steady pace. Exports to countries along the Belt and Road initiative clearly accelerated.