Recently, in the production data of household appliances announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the output of China's air conditioners has become a major highlight: From January to May 2011, China produced cumulatively 69.724 million units of air conditioners, an increase of 39.4% year-on-year. It can be said that the growth of China's air-conditioning industry is much higher than that of consumer electronics and other household electrical appliances in the same year. However, behind the rapid growth of sales of air conditioners, the decline in the growth rate of enterprises and the slowdown in the growth of inverter air conditioners have become indisputable facts. This has also become the focus of common concern in the industry.

Less than expected growth

On May 31, 2011, the official curtain call for "Energy-saving Products Benefiting the People's Project" lasted for two years. It can be said that the policy of saving energy and benefiting the people has greatly promoted the development of China's air-conditioning industry and gradually increased the energy-saving awareness of consumers. In this context, inverter air conditioners have become the consensus of the future direction of the industry. In the process of gradual upgrading of the energy efficiency of air-conditioning products, air-conditioning companies have raised their market expectations for frequency conversion, and continue to increase the proportion of inverter air conditioner production.

According to China Yikang monitoring data, in the first half of 2011, inverter air conditioner sales increased by 95.68% year-on-year, and sales increased by 107.71% year-on-year. It can be seen that the inverter air conditioner market has achieved substantial growth.

However, from the perspective of the proportion of inverter air conditioner market, its growth has not reached the industry's expectations. According to relevant data from Aowei Consulting, in the first half of 2011, the inverter air conditioner market accounted for 37%, which was lower than the market expectation of nearly 50% at the beginning of the year. In addition, the sales volume of the domestic air-conditioning market for the 2012 frozen year will be 52.83 million units, which represents an increase of 7.4% year-on-year, and will be significantly lower than the 2011 year-on-year growth rate.

Prior to this, the end of subsidies for energy-saving benefits and accelerated promotion of high-efficiency energy-saving air conditioners have resulted in a rapid decline in the market share of fixed-frequency air conditioners, and fixed-frequency air-conditioners have once faced delisting. However, judging from the trend of slower growth of inverter air conditioners, people have to guess that there is a tendency for fixed-frequency air conditioners to pick up.

Han Wei, director of Ovid Consulting White Electric Research Center, told the "China Electronics News" reporter: "From the demand point of view, the price difference between fixed frequency and variable frequency has become an important factor hindering the development of the frequency conversion." He cited for example, according to data investigation, when the frequency conversion With fixed-frequency air-conditioning difference at 500 yuan, 37% of consumers will choose inverter air conditioner. Therefore, if the inverter air conditioner wants to have an absolute advantage in the future market, then the price difference between the two must be reduced to less than 300 yuan. However, to achieve this figure is still more difficult from the current point of view.

Xu Dongsheng, general secretary of the Household Electrical Appliances Association, said in an interview with a reporter from China Electronics News: “Overall, the development of inverter air conditioners in China is very rapid, but the demand for fixed-frequency air conditioners in the market is still not negligible. Over time, Constant frequency and frequency conversion will coexist."

In addition, Xu Dongsheng also said that the so-called slowdown in the growth rate of inverter air conditioners is normal. First, the number of consumers buying inverter air conditioners is increasing. Second, from the perspective of industrial supply, there are bottlenecks in the supply of inverter compressors and industrial modules. Third, from the perspective of objective factors, the rapid rise in the price of rare earths has increased the cost of inverter air conditioners.

Insufficient upstream supply

Jing Xiaobo, deputy inspector of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Operation Monitoring Coordination Bureau, told reporters that China's air-conditioning production capacity has exceeded the sum of global demand, and consumption has also reached more than 80% of global consumption. At the same time, we should also see that the R&D and core components of the air-conditioning industry value chain are still hindered. Domestic enterprises blindly expand their production capacity, making the growth of domestic production capacity much greater than the increase in demand. The contradiction between production and demand imbalances is even more pronounced.

In fact, companies have to increase their energy efficiency products behind the move is the high growth rate of frequency conversion, energy-saving products, energy-efficient home appliances must be sufficient sales of upstream sufficient, it can be said that the core technology of air conditioning is mainly concentrated in the compression On the machine and related modules, it is critical for the company itself to increase the research and development of core technologies.

The reporter learned that air-conditioning companies have been constantly increasing their industrial layout. Haier cooperates with Mitsubishi to combine fluorine-free and formaldehyde-free inverters. In April, the United States and Toshiba established a joint laboratories unveiled. The two parties will jointly develop inverter air conditioner technologies including compressor vector algorithms, frequency controller chip manufacturing, and design and development. Gree also had in-depth cooperation with Daikin and put into operation the world's first R290 split-type air-conditioning demonstration line for hydrocarbon refrigerants, breaking the new refrigerant technology that US and Japanese air-conditioning companies have monopolized.

Wang Jinliang, Vice President of the China Refrigeration Appliance Group's China Business Division, told reporters: “With the advantage of the industrial chain, we can grasp the power of the air-conditioning industry. In terms of compressors, Guangdong Meizhi has 15 air-conditioner rotary compressor production lines with an annual production capacity of 3,200. In terms of variable frequency chip modules, Midea gradually realizes the independent development and production of frequency-converted chips and modules, and completely frees itself from the dependence of inverter components on imported suppliers.”

Seeking a differentiation breakthrough

With the increasingly saturated urban air-conditioning market, its profit margin has been greatly reduced. Under such circumstances, accelerating the pace of energy-saving and high-efficiency new product development and expanding new markets has become the key for air-conditioning companies to seek breakthroughs.

According to Zhou Zhenheng, deputy director of domestic marketing for Haier Air Conditioning, Haier is committed to satisfying consumer demand for personalized features through technological innovations. In order to respond to the national energy-saving and emission-reduction policies, the current number of non-fluorinated inverter air conditioners accounts for more than 70% of its total output.

In an interview with the reporter, Ma Shunyi, director of the Samsung Home Air Conditioning Sales Headquarters, said that for foreign brands, technology and brand are core competencies. However, in order to adapt to changes in the domestic market environment, it is necessary to carry out effective reforms and it is more important to adjust market responses in a timely manner. In 2011, SAMSUNG air-conditioning reformed its product line in a timely manner and launched a Venetian-based differentiated product to suit the domestic market environment dominated by the variable frequency market.

Cao Ning, director of the Energy Efficiency Label Management Center of the China National Institute of Standardization, told reporters of China Electronics News that the implementation of the national energy-saving products and Huimin project effectively promoted the upgrade of energy efficiency labels and further promoted the development of high-efficiency energy-saving technologies. The market share of energy-efficient products has been rapidly increased.

At the same time, Cao Ning also revealed to reporters that throughout the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, high-efficiency energy-saving products will be implemented as an important energy-saving project in China and will promote the popularization of high-efficiency energy-saving products through financial subsidies.

Referring to the popularization of energy-efficient products, in addition to the increasingly saturated primary and secondary markets, the tertiary and tertiary markets have become the “blue sea” that companies compete for.

According to statistics from Aowei Consulting, in 2011, air-conditioning sales in the primary and secondary markets totaled 39.528 million units, which represented a year-on-year increase of 28.0%, which was lower than the average growth level of the industry; and the tertiary and tertiary markets were supported by policies, especially urbanization levels. The growth rate was boosted, with sales of 10.15 million units in the third and fourth-tier markets, a year-on-year increase of 66.2%.

In response, Wang Jinliang boldly predicted that the focus of future competition will shift to the third and fourth-tier markets. He said that this requires companies to lay out in advance in technology, products, channels, services, etc., in order to take effective measures to gain market share.