Planning to buy a ACS, refrigerator? Buy it now!

WITH METAL PRICES ON THE RISE, IT’S UNLIKELY THERE WILL BE ANY COME DOWN IN THE PRICES OF FRIDGE AND ACS

DON’T LET this get you all hot under the collar — because a chill in prices of consumer durables just ain’t happening. If you’ve kept your refrigerator and AC purchases on hold till later on this year, you may have to cough up about 5% more thanks to the steady rise globally in input costs. Similarly, the wait for LCD/ plasma TV prices to plummet further may also be in vain, as the industry feels that prices have stabilised after having climbed down nearly 30% compared to last year. The 32” LCD price has dropped to about Rs 65,000 compared to Rs 1 lakh last year, while the price of the 42” plasma TV has come down to Rs 90,000 from Rs 1.3 lakh last year. “Going by international trends I don’t see such a steep fall happening shortly — prices are stabilising. But if volumes in the flat panel business grow significantly in the global market, it will push down prices and that trend will be seen in the domestic market as well,” says Girish V Rao, VP - sales & marketing, LG Electronics India. LCD/ plasma accounted for about Rs 150 crore revenues of the over Rs 8,000 crore total market opp — that’s less than one percent, but with prices crashing, there are more people who feel it’s within their reach. “As far as ACs are concerned, prices are up by about 2% on splits and 1% on window ACs — the 1.5T split AC that was costing Rs 24,000 in January, is now Rs 24,500; while a 1.5T Window AC that was costing around Rs 16,290 in January is around Rs 16,590 now,” a Samsung official told Sunday ET. Refrigerators prices too have gone up by 3-5% in the last three months, but then manufacturers are also bunging in a few more features, such as sturdier shelves and enhanced energy efficiency in the new models. “In the last one year, prices of ACs and refrigerators have gone up steadily due to the rising costs of steel and copper. Besides that there are energy labelling parameters that have been laid down by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency — there will be investments made to change these parameters,” says Kamal Nandi, VP - sales & marketing, appliances division, Godrej & Boyce. All this will see prices going up by 3-5% in the next few months. “With metal prices constantly on the rise, it’s unlikely there will be any come down in the prices of fridges & ACs,” says Mr Rao.

Courtesy: EconomicTimes

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