Air conditioner manufacturers inventory high sales volume double drop

After the National Day this golden week with the highest gold content, for the air-conditioning industry, the 2015 cold year will be truly closed. Compared with the sales situation in the previous period, during the National Day, the air-conditioning market is still placid, plain and unobtrusive without any suspense.

The reduction in sales and sales, and the continued decline in prices, is the overall situation in the cold air-conditioning market. The inventory of up to 48 million units is a heavy shackle for the air-conditioning industry in the cold year 2016.

2015 cold year air conditioning sales were poured cold water

According to the data released by the National Information Center at the 2015 Air Conditioning Industry Summit Forum, the air-conditioning market sales in the cold year 2015 fell by 5.4% year-on-year, while the sales decreased by 10.50% year-on-year.

In fact, as early as the beginning of the cold year of 2015, the pressure of domestic economic downturn and the dilemma of the lack of strength in the international market have made the situation in the air-conditioning industry unpleasant. From time to time, the news of the “El Niño” phenomenon has come to the original cold. The market is expecting another bucket of cold water.

The lack of demand is considered to be an important reason for the sluggish sales in the air-conditioning industry in the 2015 cold season. Although from the cold of 2015, major air-conditioning manufacturers began to fight a price war, but the price stimulus did not inject catalyst into the air-conditioning market demand.

Cai Ying, deputy director of the Information Resources Development Department of the National Information Center, believes that the failure of "price change" indicates that the real reason for the industry's decline is weak demand.

Since the beginning of summer, rainfall in most areas of China is also a major factor. The El Niño phenomenon has caused the main air-conditioning consumption areas in the Yangtze River basin and the southern region to basically be under the control of heavy rain, and the rainfall has been in the Yangtze River valley for as long as 2 months. Although there are not many rainwaters in the north, it is also a case of rain falling every three or five times, and there has been no sustained high temperature. Beijing is a rare weather phenomenon with 32 rains in 51 days.

"Value war replaces price war" into empty talk

According to the data provided by the National Information Center, the biennial product life cycle comparison shows that during the mature period (from December to 24 months of listing), the proportion of product sales increased from 16.21% in the 2014 cold year to 31.97% in the 2015 cold year, indicating that the company The problem of inventory clearance prevailed, leading to a significant increase in the proportion of products in the mature period.

The data released before the industry online also showed that the current air-conditioning industry inventory reached a historical high, the industry-wide inventory of up to 48 million units.

Inventories are the usual mode of operation of many air-conditioning companies. However, as the market growth rate has slowed down significantly, and the busy season has narrowed down, it has continued to heavily pressure the channels, resulting in a high inventory of channels, and eventually forming a “barrier lake” for the air-conditioning industry. The unfavorable development of the industry has also brought risks to the company's operations.

In order to deal with the huge inventory and the cool summer that has not been encountered for many years, from the very beginning, both domestic leading companies and international industry giants have all participated in the price war. However, the "price-for-price" strategy has been ineffective and has not stimulated the growth of the entire market. On the contrary, the air-conditioning industry has changed the growth trend of the cold year in 2014, and the volume and volume of the cold year have both fallen.

The price war has always been a weapon for China's air-conditioning companies to compete in the market. However, although the price war can benefit customers in the short term, in the long run, it allows consumers to bear the costs that they should not bear, and the company’s profitability is also high. discount.

For this reason, most air-conditioning manufacturers have shouted out the slogan of "replace price war with value war." Prior to the National Day Golden Week this year, Li Xinghao, chairman of the board of directors of the Zhigao Group, proposed in a high-profile manner that he would insist on a "value war" rather than a "price war."

However, people in the industry believe that in the face of high stocks of 48 million units, "the use of value war to replace the price war" may become empty talk.

According to Hong Shibin, executive chairman of the China Home Appliances Commercial Association Marketing Committee, the domestic cold-air-conditioning market in the cold season was estimated at more than 42 million units. By the 2015 cold year, the total domestic sales volume was also about 40 million units. In other words, according to the sales situation of the first two cold years, even if all the air-conditioning manufacturers do not produce in the colder year of 2016, the air-conditioner inventory may not be able to be sold out. Therefore, inventory clearance and price wars become inevitable.

"Intelligent" and "Internet+" are two big advantages

Although the amount of market volume fell in the cold year of 2015, there are still remarkable highlights. People in the industry believe that in the colder years of 2016 and the next two or three years, the focus of corporate competition can move forward in these directions.

The word "smart" has been hot in the entire home appliance industry in the past two or three years. Earlier today’s headline statistics, the intelligence of users of intelligent, energy-saving, health, appearance, comfort, and non-fluorinated air-conditioning performance reached a maximum of 2.81 million times.

According to statistics, the sales volume of smart air conditioners has reached 5.47%, a year-on-year increase of 173.50%, and the sales ratio has reached 7.15%, an increase of 98.44% year-on-year.

“The rapid growth of smart air conditioners means that users’ demand for products is still value-driven.” Wang Lei, vice chairman of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, believes that the core of air-conditioning companies’ competitiveness lies in the quality of products. Smart air-conditioning meets the core value demands of the current consumer market, and it all reflects the core trend of “energy saving, comfort and intelligence”.

On the other hand, since the 2015 cold year, almost all air-conditioning companies have increased investment and distribution in e-commerce channels, effectively stimulating high growth of air-conditioning channels online. According to the data from Ove Cloud Network, the online retail sales of air-conditioners for the year of 2015 was 4.89 million units, an increase of 47.2% year-on-year, and the retail sales amounted to 12 billion, a year-on-year increase of 32.2%.

Liu Daren, general manager of Ovid Cloud Air Conditioning Environment Division, said that the downslide in the offline market will further stimulate investment in brand online platforms, and competition in the online market will continue to be fierce. It is estimated that retail sales in online market will reach 7.39 million in the cold year of 2016. Taiwan, a year-on-year increase of 51.2%, and online sales accounted for 16.3%. It is estimated that the retail sales in the online market in the cold year of 2016 will be 17.2 billion, which is an increase of 42.6% year-on-year, with online sales accounting for 10.9%.