Source: CHEAA
Chinese home appliance industry posted revenue of 1.49 trillion Yuan in 2018, a year-on-year growth of 9.9%, and profit of 122.5 billion Yuan, a year-on-year rise of 2.46%, according to National Bureau of Statistics. As we learn from enterprises, key industry players maintained a growth of 10%-15% in the first three quarters of 2018 with profit growing faster than revenue, yet there were drastic differences by category. Heading into the second half of the year, the market performance was lackluster in general.
Most enterprises hold a cautious attitude and a wait-and-see approach when it comes to production expansion, by CHEAA’s observation.
Compared to the strong overall performance of 2017, Chinese home appliance industry saw category-different sales performances in 2018. According to All View Cloud, the retail sales of Chinese home appliance industry (including TVs, white goods, kitchen appliances, portable appliances, etc.) reached 820.3 billion Yuan in 2018, a year-on-year growth of 1.0%, clearly slower compared to the year before, of which several categories such as TVs, hoods, gas stoves, soybean makers and juice makers, saw significant drop. As to online sales, products including air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, water heaters and hoods maintained steady growth while rice cookers, electric pressure cookers, induction cooktops, air purifiers and water purifiers fell in varying degrees, of which air purifiers dived most.
Distribution wise, national electricals and electronics chains accounted for 15%-20%, local electricals and electronics chains about 10%, home furnishing chains about 1%, department stores 3%-5%, exclusive shops 30%-35%, online channels 25%-30%, home decoration market 1%-2% and project channels 4%-5%. Of these, online channels matter significantly for portable appliances; brick-and-mortar stores remain as the major channel for major appliances; fine decoration market rises as a fast growing channel for kitchen appliances.
Chinese home appliance exports remain strong in 2018 with cumulative export value repeatedly setting new highs. In December, the export value of the month posted 5.37 billion US dollars, a year-on-year drop of 1%, the cumulative export value of the year 68.63 billion US dollars, a year-on-year rise of 9.9%, same as the growth rate of the year before, and the cumulative import value 4.5 billion US dollars, a year-on-year growth of 8.1%, creating a trade surplus that touched 60 billion US dollars for the first time at 64.13 billion US dollars with a growth rate of 10%. In 2018, home appliances (including major appliances and portable appliances) as well as parts saw a historically high export performance by both value and volume.