Economy

Markets

Industries

Insights

Reports

Events

Rural home appliance sales top 50b yuan on subsidy

By Yu Hongyan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-11-20 17:12

China's rural home appliance subsidy program has boosted home appliance sales to 50.84 billion yuan ($7.45 billion) during the first 10 months of this year, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

A total of 27.88 million units of home appliances have been sold during the period, as registered on jdxx.zhs.mofcom.gov.cn, a MOFCOM-affiliated website that monitors the program.

Among the nine kinds of home appliances selected in the program, sales of refrigerators topped others to reach 13.67 million units, generating 27.92 billion yuan, according to statistics from the website. Sales of color TV sets, air-conditioners, and washing machines came after, reaching 8.29 billion yuan, 6.45 billion yuan and 3.75 billion yuan respectively.

Related readings:  Booming sales cheer home appliance makers  Subsidies boost rural home appliance sales  Rural home appliance sales surge in March on subsidy scheme  China promotes home appliance subsidy program in rural areas

Of the 348 companies participating in the program, 17 reported sales more than 1 billion yuan, 14 companies failed to sell any of their products and another 17 sold fewer than 10 units, according to the website.

As of Nov 15, 80 percent of home appliance buyers got the subsidy, according to Zeng Jian'an, director of the economic development sector of the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

After nine months' implementation, the MOF and MOFCOM fixed flaws in the program by eliminating price caps on the products, simplifying subsidy procedures and allowing local governments to expand product categories.

The home appliance and electronics industry accounts for 10 percent of China's gross domestic products, and 35 percent of China's total exports volume.

The rural home appliance subsidy program was launched nationwide by the MOFCOM and the MOF in February this year, at a time when home appliance makers were reeling from the financial crisis.

The program offers subsidies to rural consumers on purchase of refrigerators, color TV sets, mobile phones, washing machines, computers, air-conditioners, water heaters, micro-wave ovens, and electromagnetic ovens.