Although it is still in late autumn, it feels like it was early winter.
According to the published quarterly report of the listed companies in the home appliance industry, under the shadow of a series of factors including the persistence of real estate control policies, domestic inflation and the appreciation of the renminbi, and the European debt crisis, the Chinese home appliance industry, which has been driving at high speed for the past two years, has Enter the slow lane.
In the first three quarters of this year, Shenzhen Konka lost 164 million yuan; ST Kelon's net profit was 328 million yuan, down 29.94% year-on-year; Meiling Electronics' net profit was 130 million yuan, down 56% year-on-year; Little Swan A's net profit was 422 million yuan, up 9.5% year-on-year, down approximately 3 percentage points from the 12.7% growth rate in the first half of the year; the first three quarters of the United States electrical net profit growth of nearly 10%, the growth rate has slowed down compared to the first half.
This is directly related to the market environment. According to statistics from Beijing Zhongyekang Era Market Research Corporation, due to the end of June of energy-saving policies and low summer weather this year, in the third quarter of this year, domestic air-conditioning sales decreased by 14.8% year-on-year. The speed was 11.6%, which slowed the growth of domestic air conditioner sales from January to September to 2.7%. Sales of washing machines and refrigerators are also decelerating. From January to September of this year, sales of domestic washing machines and refrigerators increased by 7.5% and 3.2% respectively year-on-year.
Following the end of the first half of the "Energy Saving and Benefiting People" policy, the "Home Appliances to the Countryside" policy will also end in November this year in Shandong, Sichuan, Henan, and Qingdao, the first four places to be implemented, making the industry's home appliance industry 2012 Expectations are pessimistic.
One person in the industry frankly stated that the home appliance industry will be “clearly cloudy” in 2012, and the air-conditioning industry still has considerable channel inventory. In the “National Day” Golden Week as a barometer, sales of air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines have been unsatisfactory this year. "Over the past few years, the refrigerator and air-conditioning industries have grown by 30% to 40%. Now we must be accustomed to low growth or even negative growth," said the above sources.
With the pressure of slowing growth in domestic and foreign markets and the gradual withdrawal of government-related stimulus policies, how will the home appliance industry “defend the winter”? A number of home appliance people believe that only by reducing costs, adjusting product mix, and optimizing channels can the company's boat be able to float to improve the marginal profitability, so as to avoid those invisible reefs below the surface.
Opening up the upstream industry chain is one of the effective ways to reduce costs. Recently, Chairman Zhao Yong of Meiling Electrical Appliances resigned, and industry speculation may be taken over by Changhong Group Vice Chairman, Huayi Compression Chairman Liu Tibin, or Changhong Appliance Group Chairman Li Jin. No matter who they take over, they will strengthen the upstream and downstream cooperation between Meiling Electric and Huayi Compression. The refrigerator compressor produced by Huayi Compression is the key component of Meiling refrigerator. In fact, Midea has a complete air-conditioning and refrigerator industry chain from compressors and motors to complete machines. Another air-conditioning giant Gree is also catching up in the upstream compressor sector. The TCL (microblogging) spent a large sum of money this year in Shenzhen launched the first 8.5 generation LCD panel production line, becoming the first domestic LCD TV full process color TV companies.
The second is to optimize the product structure and improve profitability. In the second half of this year, the business strategy of Midea Refrigeration Group has changed from the original “advanced scale, structural adjustment, and guaranteed profitability” to “adjusted structure and guaranteed profitability”.
The third is channel change, reducing the intermediate links in sales. This week, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Suning Appliance (Weibo) established a joint venture sales company, and more than half of the domestic air conditioners sold in China are sold through Suning Appliance's chain stores. Gree also strengthened its direct control over the channels this year. In many localities, joint-venture sales companies have become wholly-owned subsidiaries, further realizing flat channels, and tilting more resources in the circulation to the terminal.
Ms. Kami