China is taking solid steps to boost the consumption of green and intelligent home appliances, which is expected to further stimulate consumers' purchasing appetites, and promote the recovery of consumption from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials and experts said.
China will implement a slew of stimulus measures like encouraging the replacement of old household appliances with new ones across the nation and bolstering the consumption of green and smart home appliances in rural areas, according to a notice issued by the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration for Market Regulation.
The country will strengthen the recycling and reuse of aging home appliances, support the construction of home appliances' recycling networks and green distribution centers as well as improve the delivery, installation and maintenance service standards regarding household appliances, said Sheng Qiuping, vice-minister of commerce.
"The consumption of home appliances is playing a vital role in stabilizing economic growth, spurring the domestic consumer market and expanding employment," Sheng said while noting that due to the pandemic, the sales of household appliances have been facing huge pressure since March, especially in April and May.
He Yaqiong, head of the consumer products industry department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said the ministry will accelerate steps to promote the construction of "new infrastructure" like 5G and gigabit optical networks, which provide key support for the application and development of intelligent home appliances.
Data from Beijing-based market consultancy All View Cloud, or AVC, showed that the sales revenue of China's home appliances market reached 760.3 billion yuan ($112.4 billion) in 2021, up 3.6 percent year-on-year. However, this figure represented a drop of 7.4 percent compared with 2019.
The home appliances sector plays a significant role in promoting and guiding the transformation and upgrade of China's manufacturing industry, said Zhao Meimei, assistant president of AVC.
Zhao explained the growth rate of household appliances in China is slowing down, so the stimulus policies are conducive to unleashing purchasing demand of consumers, especially those living in rural areas, shoring up consumption and promoting the popularization of energy-saving and environmentally friendly home appliance products.
These measures to boost spending on home appliances will not only satisfy people's demand for higher-quality products but also propel the intelligent transformation of the traditional home appliance industry and drive economic growth, Zhao added.
Zhao said sales of home appliances in China fell by 8.5 percentage points year-on-year from January to May, so boosting spending on such items will help drive overall economic growth.
Chinese home appliance manufacturers are ratcheting up efforts to support the recycling of discarded products and roll out more green and intelligent household appliances.
Home appliance giant Midea Group distributed shopping coupons to consumers who replaced old home appliances with energysaving and intelligent alternatives via the company's more than 120,000 offline stores.
The group, which is based in Foshan, Guangdong province, has increased efforts to recycle discarded household appliances in cooperation with companies involved in dismantling discarded electronic devices.
Zhou Yunjie, chairman and CEO of Haier Group, said more efforts are needed to build the whole industrial chain covering the recycling, dismantling and reuse of waste resources.
Zhou also called for regulating the recycling channel, formulating supportive tax policies and establishing standards that encourage the use of recycled materials.
