High-end items drive sales in China's kitchen appliances

China's kitchen appliance sales outshone other areas in the household appliance market, which appeared gloomy in the past year as the real estate market has been reined in and prices of raw materials soared, according to a report by China Central Television on Monday.

In the breakdown, high-end kitchen products lead the trend, and the report cited Liu Jie, president of health and beauty appliance maker SKG, as saying that the country's consumption upgrading is very obvious.

Along with that, more and more companies in this field have been turning their eyes toward high-end and smart products in the recent years, resulting in unit prices that keep rising.

Lu Chulong, chairman of gas appliance manufacturer Guangdong Vanward New Electric Co, told CCTV that compared with the previous unit price of about 300 yuan on average, the present price has grown to more than 2,000 yuan, and that other items, like water heaters, tend to be high-end as well.

For example people spend less on products that previously sold for over 3,000 yuan, but now sell for less with the same quality, thanks to technological developments. Consumers would rather purchase premium products priced at above 3,500 yuan or 3,600 yuan apiece, according to Han Wei, vice-president of Vatti Corporation, a Guangdong-based company principally engaged in kitchen and bathroom appliances.

At the same time, ovens, steamers and dishwashing machines enjoyed more than 200 percent growth in 2017 compared with a year earlier, Li Yunlong, director of South China headquarters for Hangzhou Robam Appliances Co, a kitchen appliance maker based in Zhejiang province, said to CCTV.

The company's 2017 financial results showed that Hangzhou Robam Appliances achieved a year-on-year growth of 20.78 percent, with operating revenue of 7 billion yuan.

Vatti also recorded 5.73 billion yuan of operating income in 2017, a 30.40 percent increase on a yearly basis. The company's financial statement attributed the growth to its strategic transformation to high-end and smart products.