China's Central Air Conditioning Market Enters a Period of Stable Growth

Difficulties in the opening up and the market outlook is picking up - The overall development of China's central air-conditioning industry in 2012 showed such a trend. Starting from May and June 2012, the industry as a whole began to recover. Restorative growth has become the main theme of the market in the second half of the year.

In 2012, the overall sales volume of China's central air-conditioning industry reached 57.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 0.6%. Excluding the impact of the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, the growth rate of the central air-conditioning industry in China has slowed down significantly. In recent years, the overall average growth rate of the industry has exceeded 20%. By 2011, the overall size of the central air-conditioning industry in China had almost doubled from 2007. The rapid growth over the years, on the one hand, stems from the fact that the central air-conditioning industry in China is still in a rising trend during the development period; on the other hand, in the past few years, China’s macro economy has ushered in unprecedented development, especially in infrastructure construction and urbanization. In the development trend, municipal projects, industrial projects and civil projects all ushered in a construction boom. These factors have greatly promoted the growth of China's central air-conditioning industry. In addition, in order to stimulate domestic demand, the state has issued a series of supportive policies that have stimulated both the macro economy and the development of the central air-conditioning industry.

By 2012, China's GDP growth rate has slowed down and for the first time in several years it has broken eight. The external performance of the slowdown in macroeconomic development is the slowdown in the construction of a large number of projects and the substantial decline in the growth rate of the real estate market. The impact on the central air-conditioning industry is directly reflected in the sharp reduction in corporate orders in 2012 and the decline in the market. According to data from more than 60 mainstream central air-conditioning companies monitored by the HVAC News, in 2012, half of the company’s sales fell year-on-year. Among the companies with growth performance, those with growth rates exceeding 15% indicated that countable.

        The mainstream enterprises in the central air-conditioning industry in China are divided into four camps: the European and American companies, the domestic home appliance companies, the domestic chiller companies, and the Japan-South Korea multi-company group. As companies build their own product lines, the differences between the above major camp brands are gradually narrowing. In recent years, European and American companies and domestic home appliance companies have made major fuss about product line extension and product innovation. Therefore, these two types of camp companies are involved in chiller units and fluorine unit products, and the product line is also moving towards a broad and complete product line. The direction of development. On the contrary, Japan and South Korea's multi-team companies and domestic chiller companies still each stick to the field of specialization. The difference is that due to the rapid development trend of multi-line group products, the specialized multi-line group companies need to consider how to develop steadily in this specialized field; domestic traditional chiller companies lack of technical reserves With channel advantages, it is difficult to enter the fluorine unit market. Therefore, these two camp companies still survive and develop within their respective market areas.

        In 2012, the biggest change in the brand structure of China's central air-conditioning industry came from the replacement of champions in the sales scale of the industry. In the reporting year, the national brand Gree surpassed Daikin and became the sales champion of China's central air-conditioning industry with a market share of 14.3%. Compared with 2011, Gree increased its market share by 2.9 percentage points. This is also domestic For the first time, the company surpasses foreign-funded enterprises to lead the central air conditioning industry in China

        Generally speaking, the central air-conditioning companies in the domestic home appliances and the Japanese and South Korean multi-team companies have developed relatively quickly. The European and American companies and the domestic traditional chiller companies have been developing relatively steadily. This feature is also the basic competition pattern of the central air-conditioning industry in China in recent years. . However, it should be pointed out that Daikin, which has achieved a large sales scale, has experienced a significant decline in 2012. This factor has caused the overall market share of Japanese and Korean multi-group companies to be lower than in 2011. Excluding the factors of Daikin, even if it is affected by the downturn in the real estate market and the tension between Sino-Japanese relations in 2012, there is still a relatively rapid increase in the number of companies in the Japan-South Korea multi-team group.

        Judging from the comparison of European and American brand share, the development of European and American brands has been relatively stable. The overall share of sample brands listed in the report is also basically the same as that of the previous year. In fiscal year 2012, some European and American air-conditioning companies started to make efforts to market their products outside the market. Companies including York, McQuay, and Carrier began to deploy variable-frequency multi-connect group products. Among them, York focused on launching large-capacity variable-frequency multi-connection group products in 2012 and channel promotion across the country. Based on the strong brand rally and market recognition of the European and American brands in the Chinese market, it can be predicted that in the next few years, the market structure of China's variable frequency multi-play group will inevitably change, and the European and American brands will become the variable-frequency multi-group market. There is only time left for the important forces in the game. On the other hand, in the year of 2012, the status of European and American brands in China's chiller market has still not been challenged. This feature will not be changed in the coming years.

        From the perspective of the occupancy rate of central air-conditioning companies in the domestic home appliance department, although companies including Gree, Midea, Haier, Oaks, Zhigao, and TCL have generally achieved more eye-catching market performance, in the past year, their The difference is also relatively obvious. Gree has replaced Daikin’s leading position for many years from the first half of 2012 and has maintained its leading position for the whole year. This is the result of Gree’s long-term professional strategy. Although the United States has lost some market share, it needs to be pointed out that since the statistical point of view of this report is corporate repayment, in the year 2012, the United States' own consolidation and made efforts to digest the inventory of the channels, but these efforts can not be reflected in the report research. In the numbers. Looking at the whole year, despite the obvious decline in the Sino-U.S. in the first half of the year, it has regained its pace of development in the second half of the year. Haier is worth mentioning. Since 2011, Haier has renewed its efforts to sort out the market and began to promote the national market and regional markets. These actions helped Haier to start regaining its lost market position. In addition, it cannot be overlooked that central air-conditioning companies in the domestic home appliance department are getting rid of the shadow of survival by relying on unit crews. In addition to Gree, Midea, and Haier, domestic home appliance companies including Oaks, Chigo, and TCL have all achieved steady development year after year in the variable frequency multi-connect group products, and domestic home appliance companies must have a path to development. Compared with European and American brands, domestic chiller companies have experienced a difficult year. According to the monitoring data of “HVAC”, more than half of the domestic chiller companies’ sales performance has declined in 2012, and almost all other companies have increased slow. The reason is that traditional Chinese chiller enterprises have long lacked core competitive advantages. When the market environment changes, the ability of domestic chiller companies to resist risks is relatively weak. Therefore, in the reporting year, the domestic market for chilled water chiller companies remained stable. Relatively poor.

        The market performance of Japanese and Korean multi-team companies in 2012 was somewhat unexpected. Although most of the companies still maintained steady growth, the overall share of sample brands declined significantly compared with the past. The reason is as mentioned above, due to the sales decline of Daikin in 2012rh. In the fiscal year of 2012, the weight market for multi-line group products in the East China region, including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai markets, has declined to varying degrees, among which, Zhejiang and Shanghai's regional multi-group market declined significantly, and Jiangsu's market growth slowed. This shows that the multi-team group that has experienced years of mad growth has finally reached a relative peak. In the future, starting from the weight market, the multi-group market will shift from rapid growth to stable development. In addition, some companies began to try to innovate in the field of multi-line group specialization. For example, in 2012, Hisense Hitachi launched the Water Multi-source Group Design Contest to try to differentiate in the multi-play group market, giving multi-line group products The more new ideas in the market are also the trend of future market development.

       2013 Market Preview

        For the development of China's central air-conditioning industry in 2013, both believe that the market has recovered from the second half of 2012 and that it will usher in a new beginning in 2013, and also believe that the poor performance of the market in 2012 is mainly due to the projects signed in 2011. It was finally able to fulfill the point of view that the difficulties really started from 2013. In fact, these two conditions will be reflected in the 2013 market: First, China's macroeconomic development has been difficult to restore to the rapid rise of the previous few years, and policy stimulus has partially overdrawn the market potential. The normal development track is the trend of the times, and the HVAC industry will also turn from crazy growth to steady growth. Second, under the general trend of stable growth, due to factors such as the housing market, the development of the HVAC industry in China has both uncertainties and potential risks. In general, the weight market centered on HSI, still There may be a further slowdown in growth, or a decline in the market. However, due to the lag in regional development, the market in the central and western regions will continue to develop rapidly.

        Although the development of the central air-conditioning industry in China has experienced the first decline for many years in 2012, it must be affirmed that the overall central air-conditioning industry in China is still in an ascending development path. In the previous industry development report, the definition of the development of China's central air-conditioning industry was often described as "rapid development," and since 2012, it has shifted to "stable development." This means that the central air-conditioning industry in the era of frenzied growth and huge profits has become history. Although there are still specificities in individual markets or projects, the commonality of changing from “rapid development” to “stable development” has become a foregone conclusion. "Stable development" is also a judgment of the trend of the development of China's central air-conditioning industry in 2013. In addition, what needs attention is that in the year of 2012, domestic chilled-water chiller enterprises apparently exhibited insufficient resilience when the external environment changed, which led to the obstruction of development. Although China's central air-conditioning has experienced more than a decade of development, it cannot be avoided that most companies have not really established their core competitiveness, and the driving force behind their survival and development is still the low-cost advantage of manufacturing. In fact, China's manufacturing industry is currently in such an embarrassing situation. Despite good expectations, the situation may be worse. The cost advantage of China's manufacturing industry has gradually become a thing of the past. Although the human cost is still not too high, the related high costs, including energy costs, logistics costs, etc., have made the “China Base” no longer significant. Advantage. Foreign-funded enterprises that have established production bases in the Chinese market are passing "backflows" and moving to Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines to seek ways to obtain lower manufacturing costs. China, which is undergoing a transition from "manufacture" to "creation," will no longer be able to attract investment with cheap manufacturing. This has become an obvious trend. The repeated cycles of manufacturing in China will eventually shift from labor-intensive to technology-intensive, but the road is too long. The central air-conditioning companies in China must quickly realize that the new situation faced by the Chinese manufacturing industry, through technological innovation and product innovation, in order to obtain the true core competitiveness, to participate in a broader and more lasting market competition in.