Economy | Home Appliances Revenue in the First Half of the Year increased by 7.1% to 914.5 billion RMB

Data shows that from January to June this year, enterprises in the home appliance industry achieved a revenue of 914.5 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 7.1%; Realized a profit of 67.49 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 20.2%.

Looking towards the future, as the pace of promoting stock updates, expanding high-quality supply, and guiding home appliances to rural areas continues to accelerate, the development potential of the home appliance industry will be further stimulated.

The continuous innovation of various major electric brands reflects the surging vitality of the home appliance industry. As a traditional advantageous industry in China, the home appliance industry is also an important engine for stabilizing industrial growth and promoting consumption. Since the beginning of this year, the home appliance industry has shown: enhancing innovation capabilities; Developing whole house intelligence.

>Where does the growth resilience of the home appliance industry come from? "Since the beginning of this year, there has been a strong demand for high-end product orders. In the second quarter, online sales of intelligent air purifiers increased by 8.6% year-on-year, mainly contributed by mid to high end models priced above 3000 RMB," said Lu Yi, Product Manager of Xiaomi Environmental Appliances.

At present, China's home appliance market has entered a stage of upgrading with high-end characteristics. The relevant person in charge of Hisense Video Technology Co., Ltd. stated. It is reported that Hisense Home Appliances' net profit in the first half of the year is expected to increase by 110% -140% year-on-year.

In the view of Xu Dongsheng, Vice Chairman of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, since the beginning of this year, the trend of structural transformation and upgrading in China's home appliance industry has become more obvious. The supply of high-end products characterized by green intelligence is sufficient and effective, driving the stable and progressive operation of the industry.

Entering the Huawei Ark One Space Intelligent Open Laboratory, with a handheld intelligent central control screen, the whole house appliances can be interconnected: when watching TV, one click can activate the viewing mode and enjoy immersive audio and video; When sleeping, voice wakes up the AI assistant and remotely controls a series of electrical appliances such as lighting and air conditioning.

"From smart home appliances to whole house intelligence, the growth space of the home appliance industry is constantly expanding." Shao Yang, President of Huawei Terminal Co., Ltd.'s whole house intelligent product line, said that relying on the HarmonyOS ecosystem, various smart devices in residential spaces are organically connected, better meeting people's needs for intelligent living. As of the end of June this year, Huawei's All Home Intelligence has exceeded 200 stores nationwide, and over 5800 smart products can be connected to All Home Intelligence.

Haier has established the "Three Winged Bird" brand for whole house intelligent scenarios, and Midea has released the "Midea Meijia" whole house intelligent product system. "Multiple intelligent products are collaborating, and stronger intelligent capabilities are being integrated, making smart home appliances more user-friendly." Xu Dongsheng said that the transformation of whole house intelligence, while bringing personalized and customized experiences to users, has also become a new engine driving the growth of the home appliance industry.

>>According to data on promoting stock updates and improving the application ecosystem, from January to June, sales of household appliances and audiovisual equipment reached 427 billion RMB, with a year-on-year growth rate of 1.0%, down from 3.9% in the whole of last year. "The efficiency level of major home appliance enterprises has significantly improved, but there is still room for further expansion of home appliance consumption," said Xu Dongsheng.

Xu Jianwei, a researcher at the Industry Institute of the China Academy of Macroeconomics, said that as the durability of household products continues to improve, the product update cycle is longer. If the new features of the product cannot effectively improve consumer pain points, the demand for updates and replacements will shrink.

Taking air purifiers as an example, "with the continuous improvement of air quality and stricter control of formaldehyde release from building materials, the demand for formaldehyde removal from products is gradually weakening." Lu Yi said that the company is currently developing more types of gas sensors and filtration technologies, while adding intelligent standby functions to reduce the frequency of filter replacement and lower operating costs.

More brands are using integration to revitalize traditional home appliance products. The Casarte Nebula air conditioner integrates functions such as air conditioning, humidifier, purifier, disinfection machine, air fan, etc., achieving one unit available all year round; Hisense integrates an ultrasonic eyewash device on the basis of its existing products. The integration of the product's functions of washing clothes, glasses, and jewelry is not a random combination of household appliances, but a maximum satisfaction of users' needs based on their specific operating habits in specific scenarios Xu Dongsheng said that integration is releasing more growth space for traditional household appliances.

"The continuously expanding new product categories, new scenarios, and new applications are the potential for growth in the home appliance industry." Xu Jianwei said that currently, intelligent innovation is active in the home appliance field, but different brands of home appliance products lack connection or even compatibility in the application ecosystem, becoming a shortcoming that hinders home appliance consumption.

With the increasing number of intelligent devices, connecting ecological islands and achieving cross brand interconnectivity has become an inevitable trend in the development of smart home appliances. "The construction of smart home is inseparable from the participation of home appliances, home appliances, communications, the Internet, content service providers and other parties." Xu Dongsheng said that in June this year, the China Home Appliances Association and the China Communications Standardization Association jointly released the White Paper on Smart Home Connectivity in China (2023), to further promote smart home connectivity standards from "yes" to "good".

>>>Expanding high-quality supply and expanding rural market household appliance consumption, as the main field of traditional consumption and an important driving force for restoring and expanding consumption, how to view its growth prospects?

"From the perspective of industry trends, the market penetration rate of smart products in major home appliance categories such as refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines is increasing year by year," said Xu Dongsheng. According to relevant data, the scale of China's smart home appliance market exceeded 550 billion RMB in 2021, exceeded 650 billion RMB in 2022, and is expected to exceed 730 billion RMB in 2023.

"Compared to some developed countries, there is still a gap in the level of ownership of smart home appliances per hundred households in China, and there is great room to improve its penetration rate. The growth potential and driving force of home appliance consumption are great," said Xu Jianwei.

Entering the stock market, how can the home appliance industry move from high-speed growth to high-quality development, and better stimulate the potential of home appliance consumption?

a. On the one hand, continuously expanding high-quality supply, promoting the upgrading and value-added enhancement of smart home appliance products.

"With the continuous optimization of the competitive landscape in the home appliance industry and the further increase in industry concentration, driven by leading and innovative enterprises, the proportion of green and intelligent home appliance products has significantly increased, providing solid support for expanding home appliance consumption." Xu Jianwei proposed that in order to adapt to the upgrading of home appliance consumption, precise policies need to be implemented in areas such as exchanging old appliances for new ones, promoting intelligent integrated home appliances, and recycling waste home appliances.

Recently, the Notice on Measures to Restore and Expand Consumption clearly proposed to promote smart home appliances, integrated home appliances, functional furniture and other products, and enhance the level of smart and green home furnishings. He Yaqiong, Director of the Consumer Products Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated that the next step will be to support the user centered development of the home appliance industry, achieve real-time demand response, full process real-time visualization, and seamless resource integration, and continuously launch more scenario based, intelligent, and serialized home appliance products.

b. On the other hand, we will continue to expand the rural market and accelerate the promotion of green and intelligent home appliances in rural areas.

With the continuous improvement of farmers' income and living standards, the rural market is becoming a new growth point to stimulate the demand for household appliances. Data shows that in the first five months of this year, the sales revenue of replacing old appliances with new ones and promoting green and intelligent appliances to rural areas increased by 83.7% and 12.6% year-on-year, respectively. Xu Jianwei proposed to accelerate the construction of multi-level consumption centers, vigorously promote green and intelligent home appliances to rural areas, and better improve the after-sales service system for rural home appliances.