KARACHI: With surging temperatures owing to less rains in the winters and dry weather ahead of summer season (May-June), the manufacturers of split air-conditioners have already jacked up prices by Rs2,000-3,000 since January anticipating higher demand for cooling machines in the peak summer.
Last year in May the manufacturers had raised prices by Rs2,000-4,000 on count of various reasons.
Dealers at various markets were quoting different retail prices keeping a margin of up to Rs3,000 depending on various brands of split A/Cs.
Karachi Electronic Dealers Association (KEDA) Information Secretary Shahid Ali Sahar said the one-ton and 1.5-ton split A/C of Dawlance was selling at Rs26,000 and Rs34,600.
He said the same category in Haier was selling at Rs26,000-27,000 and Rs34,000-35,000. While LG one and 1.5 tons split A/C was available at Rs33,000 and Rs40,000. He said Mitsubishi’s one and 1.5 tons A/Cs were available at Rs40,000 and Rs52,000.
He said two years back the one-ton split A/C of Dawlance, LG and Mitsubishi was available at Rs19,000, Rs24,000 and Rs32,000 respectively.
Shahid said currently sales had been slow but the real picture of demand would be clearer in May and June.
Chairman KEDA Mohammad Idress claimed sales were hit rock bottom as compared to last year as people were now more worried over surging food inflation that had squeezed their buying power followed by frequent electricity outages.
He said that even the assemblers and importers of split air conditioners had brought in low number of units this year as compared to last year.
He said a few customers were buying split A/Cs for dowry purpose.
Another retailer at Hashoo Centre said sales were neither cool nor hot, but could not be termed satisfactory. The market has yet to see any hustle and bustle as compared with three years when retailers used to close their shops late hours.
Meanwhile, a manufacturer did not agree with the retailers saying that sales had been quite better compared with last year but it was definitely very low compared with three years back.
The manufacturers had seen sale of split A/C hovering between 600,000-650,000 units two and a half years back but this year the sales may range between 400,000-450,000 units.
Production of air conditioners in February 2010 rose to 15,099 from 6,108 units in February 2009. In July-February 2009-2010 production fell to 96,825 units from 102,793 in the same period of last year.
He claimed that the assemblers had carry over stock of last year.
In view of persistent power failures, many people think that it is better to buy UPS/generators for maintaining power supply in summer instead of purchasing air conditioners, the assembler said.
Split air conditioners are definitely power consuming units as their running cost is very high as compared to deep freezers and refrigerators. As power tariff has been going up, it is hard for the middle and lower income people to think about cooling gadgets, he said.
Prices have gone up owing to losing value of the rupee against the dollar in the last one and a half years, making parts costlier, he said.
Meanwhile, figures released by Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) revealed increase in production of refrigerators to 606,074 units in July-February 2009-10 from 502,630 units in the same period of last fiscal year.
The assembler said production may touch one million units at the end of current fiscal year as compared to 850,000-900,000 last fiscal.
Source Dawn News
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