Sales of electrical appliances are expected to decline this year, another victim of the eonomic downturn that has made Thai Consumers more cautious in their spending habits, according to a report by Gfk Retail and Technology (Thailand).
Gfk based its report on sample panel stores' over-the-counter sales.
It estimates that the value of the consumer-electronics market, which includes audio-visual products such as televisions, DVD players and digital portable multimedia players, will be Bt37.7 billion this year, a 7.8-per-cent decrease from 2008.
The visual product market is expected to decline by 5.57 per cent, with products such as flat-screen TVs seeing the biggest drop. Manufactures have turned their focus to more profitable products such as slim TVs, LCD TVs and plasma TVs.
LCD TV sales in the second quarter increased by a significant 167 per cent to 200, 400 units from the first quarter, while those of plassma TVs rose by 30.38 per cent to 20,600 units.
Despite the skyrocketing unit sales of those products, it is estimated that the total demand for colour televisions in 2009 will reach 3 million units, a decrease of 4.4 per cent from last year, with flat-screen TVs declining the furthest.
DVD players have become a mass-market product, Gfk said in its report, with many manufacturers now offering products with different functions at various price levels.
The product is entering the mature stage, the report said, as marketing of new disc-player technologies such as Blu-ray becomes more sidespread.
It is estimated that total market demand for DVD players and Bluray disc palyers thsi year will be 3,190,000 and 7,000 units, respectively.
Gfk believed that portable media players such as MP3 and MP4 players have reached market maturity, with many substitution products such as mobile phones ans smart phones appearing.
The firm estimates the market for portable media players will reach about 316,000 units, worth Bt945 million, by the end of this year.
The MP3-player market is slowly declining as the number of brands devreases, unit sales stabilise and prices fall, according to the report.
The degital camera market this year is expected to drop by 10 per cent from last year in terms of units and 6 per cent in terms of value, mainly due to a decline in consumers' spending power.
However, while the market for digital single-lens reflex cameras grew about 10 per cent in terms of units from 70,000 last year to 77,000 this year, the market value is forecast to fall by 6 percent.
For the home-appliances segment, the largest among electrical appliances, Gfk estimates market value will reach Bt42 billion.
The number of units sold in the first half of this year was slightly higher than last year but market value was flat.
There are two home-appliace segments-major domestic home appliances (MDAs) and small domestic home appliances (SDAs).
The first comprises refrigerators, washing machines, air -conditioners and microwave ovens, while the latter consists of rice cookers, irons, food-preparation devices, vacuum leaners, hair dryers, hair stylers, shavers and electronic fans.
MDA market value is expected to exceed Bt33.2 billion.
SDAs are expected to achieve a higher growth rate in unit terms than MDAs because of pricing and the economic situation. Price-cutting is still the main strategy for pushing sales in the MDA market.
Broken down by type of product,1,195,000 refrigerators are expected to be sold this year (maintaining the 2008 level), with a value of Bt9.874 billion, or zero growth compared with last year.
Refrigerators have a high penetration rate-roughly 84 per cent.
Because of tight competition among South Korean, Japanese and Chinese brands, demand for washing machines this year is forecasted at 1,225,000 units worth Bt9.85 billion, for a decrease of 1 per cent in unit terms and flat growth in value.
For air conditioners, the total market is expected to stay flat from last year at roughly 584,000 units worth about Bt12.47 billion.
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