Raw material prices are rising, and home appliances will also increase in price.

Reporter Fang Jun

A wave of price hikes driven by raw materials is sweeping through the household appliance industry that everyone is familiar with.

Affected by rising memory module and chip prices, early this year computers started to get more expensive. From mid-March onward, phone prices also increased (see our paper’s March 17, 4th edition report). But this is only part of the story. After visiting the market, the reporter found that the home appliance market is about to enter a new round of price adjustments.

During the Qingming holiday, the reporter visited multiple appliance retail stores in our city as a consumer. The information received was that price increases will most likely begin in mid-to-late April, and some categories may rise by 10% to 20%.

A person in charge at an appliance experience store in Longyou said that during this period, she has been receiving, one after another, price-adjustment notice messages sent by brand principals. “Under the impact of chip price increases, the price of televisions will definitely go up. And it involves most of the familiar brands in the market, with price increases of at least 5% or more.” After working in the home appliance industry for many years, she admitted that a situation where televisions collectively rise in price has not been seen for years.

The price increase in the kitchen appliance segment is relatively more noticeable. A sales staff member at a range hood showroom counter for Van Gould Home Appliances’ brand at Pu Nong Household Appliances predicted, “Ahead of the ‘May Day’ holiday, prices will rise one after another. Especially for newly released models planned to launch, the increase will not be small. “We estimate our brand’s prices will go up by around 20%.” Another well-known brand’s range hood sales manager also said so.

With copper prices staying high, copper-containing appliances such as air conditioners, washing machines, and refrigerators are likewise stepping into a “soaring-soaring-soaring” situation. Sales staff from air conditioner brands such as Gree and Midea said that although every year around this time, air conditioners usually adjust prices because demand increases, this year is different: “With copper prices this high, air conditioner manufacturing broadly uses copper tubing—this round of price increases is relatively more aggressive.”

However, the reporter’s investigation found that the “price increases” most brands mention are not product official filing prices being raised, but rather the subsequent reduction in promotional activity intensity or the withdrawal of subsidies. “The Qingming promotion intensity is already enough; the ‘May Day’ one may not be as big.” On April 4, when the reporter visited Pu Nong Household Appliances, they heard sales staff say this to customers. In addition, this round of price adjustments shows a clear pattern of differentiation: for the purpose of clearing inventory, brand principals temporarily do not move older models. The prices of these products are basically stable, but newly launched and new batch models basically cannot escape the word “increase.”

When facing expectations of price hikes, what citizens care about most is whether it is a good time to buy home appliances right now. In response, an industry insider suggested: if you are a just-need customer, you might as well seize the current window period and purchase promptly; but if you are not in a rush, you can wait a bit more. “On the one hand, the inventory buffering period is expected to last until late Q2 and early Q3. That means, right now, most brands’ older stock volumes on the market are sufficient. On the other hand, raw materials are heavily affected by the international situation; it’s hard to judge how the trend will develop in the future.”