(Yicai Global) Feb. 27 -- China's consumer electronics market will undergo change under the coronavirus epidemic's impact, and the domestic market will fall 18 percent in the first half, but growth will emerge in small electrical health-concept kitchen appliances, including vacuum cleaners, air purifiers and coffee makers, Germany-based research firm Growth from Knowledge projects.

The Covid-19 pneumonia will drag down full-year sales by 6 percent, but the market will recover in the second quarter, GfK predicts in a research report it published on Feb. 25.

The pestilence will impact China's technical consumer goods market, with a substantial decrease in home appliance, camera, photographic equipment and communications product transactions in the first half from consumers' deferred or reduced consumption, GfK forecasts, but it expects the small home appliance sector to be the least impacted. The increasing premium consumers place on hygiene and health will boost demand for vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, personal care items and similar gadgets. Lifestyle changes such as more frequent in-home cooking will also increase the clamor for such items as food processors and coffee makers.

Over 64 percent of consumers said they will buy personal-care general electric and kitchen appliances and household products permeated by a healthy aura one to three months after Covid-19, and one-third even plan to increase their budgets for such products, according to GfK's online survey of Chinese consumers that concluded this month. As for smartphones, 48 percent of respondents said they will not change their purchase plans, while another 23 percent said they will raise their budget.

Small electric appliances are selling like hotcakes in China as, e.g. factories' tougher requirements for epidemic prevention after resumption of production have fueled worker demand for electrically-heated lunch boxes and led to a supply shortage of these, Liu Kui, Ningbo Bear Electric Appliance's board secretary, told Yicai Global.

Sales of Guangdong province-based Midea Group's air purifiers and air disinfectors have jumped, with sales of the first more than quadrupling from a year earlier, Midea's life appliance division told Yicai Global.

Editors: Xu Wei, Ben Armour