(Yicai Global) May 30 -- Guangdong province, the world's biggest manufacturing hub for white goods, produced more than CNY1.6 trillion (USD226.3 billion) of household appliances last year, accounting for 40 percent of China's total, new figures showed.

Profits at Guangdong’s home appliance manufacturers topped CNY110 billion (USD15.6 billion) in 2022, according to data released at an industry forum yesterday.

Guangdong has more listed appliance makers than anywhere else in China and includes the likes of industry giants Midea Group, Gree Electric Appliances, Skyworth Group, and TCL Industrial Holdings. It also boasts more fruitful inventions than any other provincial-level region.

The province made the most televisions, aircons, kitchen appliances, and decorative light fittings in China in 2022, ranking second by annual capacity of refrigerators and fourth by annual capacity of washing machines. Nearly 108 million TVs were made in Guangdong last year.

The recovery in consumption of white goods in China this year has been slow, with cumulative growth only returning this month, Xu Dongsheng, vice president of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, said at the forum. Against the backdrop of new technologies changing the way people live and work and increasingly complex geopolitics, the solution to these difficulties should be technological innovation and high-quality development, he added.

Dai Huizhong, the chairman of Hisense Home Appliances Group and the newly-elected head of the Guangdong Electrical Appliances Chamber of Commerce, called on peers not to start a new price war to gain short-term survival space. Instead, they should stick to independent technical innovations to transition to producing their own brands from contract manufacturing, Dai noted.

The growth of TCL's air conditioner business came from household, commercial, and special-use aircons and upstream parts, said Chen Shaolin, TCL VP and general manager of its aircon division. Building smart plants with new digital technologies increased the level of operating efficiency at its aircon business by over 60 percent, he said.

Its annual output value jumped 50 percent to CNY30 billion (USD4.2 billion) from CNY20 billion over the past two years, Chen added, saying that is expected to grow to CNY60 billion in the next three years.

Smaller home appliance firms can also survive in the market if they keep producing high-quality and high-end products, according to Cai Zhengfu, vice chairman at high-end fan and heater maker Airmate Electrical Shenzhen. In recent years, Airmate put much effort into designing and making high-end electric products for the Japanese and South Korean markets.

More opportunities will appear in developing economies in Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America as the European and US markets are mature, said Yao Youjun, president of refrigerator maker Homa Appliances. In the future, Homa will make its whole set of technical solutions more accessible overseas, taking its manufacturing capabilities abroad via partnerships with small local producers to quickly penetrate local markets.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione