Home appliance makers' profits up 20.4% last year

Ulta High Definition 4K Ultra HD television screens hang on display on the Qingdao Haier Co Ltd exhibition stand during the IFA International Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin, Germany, Sept 1, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

Domestic home appliance manufacturers reported a 20.4 percent increase in 2016 profits, Beijing Business Today reported citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Last year, China's home appliance makers' core business revenue totaled 1.46 trillion yuan ($212.37 billion), up 3.8 percent from the previous year, with profits rising by 20.4 percent to 119.69 billion yuan.

A total of 160.49 million units of air conditioners, up 4.5 percent, 92.38 million units of refrigerators, up 4.6 percent, and 76.21 million units of washing machines, up 4.9 percent, were produced last year.

During the same period, the sales-output ratio reached 94.9 percent, down 0.1 percentage point from a year ago, while the export shipment value went up 7.9 percent to 372.5 billion yuan.

Last year, China's business to customer (B2C) home appliance online shopping market (including mobile terminal)?was estimated to be worth?384.6 billion yuan, up 27.9 percent from the previous year, according to the China's home appliance online shopping report 2016.

In 2016, the e-commerce penetration ratio of domestic home appliance market, which are dominated by JD.com, Tmall and Suning.com, reached 19.95 percent, the report said.

Online shopping has become a driving force for the home appliance retail sector, the report added.?Meanwhile, the market continued to show a trend of shifting to the high-end product market, especially the smart home appliance products, which have a bigger influence in the market.