Gas Water Heater: Turning to the High End and Looking at Condensation

The sales of gas water heaters maintained a certain growth momentum in 2010 and early this year. According to data from Zhong Yikang, in 2010, the cumulative retail volume of gas water heaters was 2.229 million units, an increase of 10.57% over the same period last year; retail sales were 38.798 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.68%. In January of this year, both retail sales and retail sales of gas water heaters increased by about 15% from the previous month.

Competition: High Concentration Two "Millions" Continue to Strengthen

Nearly 90% of the market is occupied by the top 10 companies in the market, and two "ten thousand" occupy 40% market share.

The competitive landscape of the gas water heater market has not changed significantly in the past year, and brand concentration remains high.

The top 10 companies in the gas water heater market accounted for 86.41% of the retail market share and 91.91% of the retail market share. Wanhe and Wanjiale two companies still firmly occupy the top two gas water heater sales. Among them, Wanhe’s share of retail sales and retail sales were 20.62% and 15.07%, respectively, while Wanjiale’s share of retail sales and retail sales were 16.83% and 15.19%, respectively. After many years of competition, the two companies have still not been able to shake off their opponents. Companies that followed included Linne, Can, Midea, Haier and AO. Smith, Sakura, Vantage, forward.

In the field of gas water heaters, the competition between domestic and foreign-funded enterprises is fierce. In general, domestic-funded enterprises have the upper hand. In 2010, the market share of domestic-funded enterprises is higher than that of foreign-funded enterprises. In terms of retail sales, domestically-funded enterprises accounted for 32.49% of foreign-funded enterprises with a market share of 67.51%; in terms of retail sales, domestic-funded enterprises had a market share of 54.36%, while foreign-invested companies had a market share of 45.64%.

Although domestic-funded enterprises are leading foreign-funded enterprises in terms of market share, it can be seen that foreign-funded enterprises still have an advantage in the high-end market, which also leads to a “quantity” advantage of domestic-funded enterprises far outweighing the “value” advantage. For some time to come, strengthening the level of technological R&D and industrial design and advancing to the high-end market will continue to be the direction of domestic-funded enterprises.

At the same time, driven by the policy of home appliances to the countryside, the rural market has continued to expand, and many foreign water heater companies have also actively expanded to the tertiary and tertiary markets. In the future, the competition in the gas water heater industry will not only begin around the urban market, but will also infiltrate into the rural market, resulting in more intense competition in the high-end, low-end, and full-product segments.

Product: Safety favored in the main high-end

The sales of gas water heaters below 400 yuan have continued to decline, and large quantities of water and high-end products have gradually become the main products for sale.

In recent years, low-carbon, energy-saving, and smart have become key words in the home appliance market, and they are no exception in the field of gas water heaters. Judging from the sales situation in 2010, products ranging from RMB 800 to RMB 2,800 accounted for the dominant position, with a combined retail market share of 74.78% and a retail sales market share of 73.70%. Among them, products ranging from 1600 yuan to 2,000 yuan are the best-selling price segment products, with a retail volume share of 19.21% and a retail sales share of 20.69%. The retail sales of products under 400 yuan is only 4.66%, and the retail sales share is 0.86%. From the perspective of the price segment of hot-selling products, gas-fired water heaters have been developing to the mid-to-high end.

In addition, the retail volume of flue gas water heaters declined sharply. In 2010, the retail volume decreased by 17.47%, while the retail volume of safer row-type gas water heaters increased by 17.41% year-on-year, and the retail volume share reached 82.60%, which was the market share. The kingpin product type.

From the point of view of the product's water output, products with large quantities of water gradually become mainstream. The retail volume of 7.1 to 16 liters is 88.38%. Among them, retail volume of 9.1 liters to 10 liters of water accounted for the largest proportion, reaching 44.50%.

Comprehensive price, exhaust method, water output and other indicators comprehensive point of view, the current consumer is more concerned about the safety of gas water heaters, but also tend to buy large quantities of water, high-end gas water heaters.

Trends: Elimination of low-end optimistic about the low-carbon condensing, energy development direction is clear, condensing water heaters to the front desk.

As the high-end consumer trends in gas water heaters become more apparent, low-end gas water heaters will further exit the market. Unlike other home appliances, the safety of water heaters is related to human life. Once a safety problem arises, it is a major accident. Because of this, the sales of flue gas water heaters with lower safety factors have continued to decline, and they have been hard to find in the first-tier cities in recent years. However, such products are still being sold in the secondary and tertiary markets.

It is reported that mainstream companies such as Haier and Sakura have started to eliminate the flue machines. In the future, sales of such products will continue to decline. Recently, Wanhe announced that the company's flue gas water heaters will be withdrawn from the national chain stores and ceased sales from March. Consumers can also use the old flue machine (regardless of brand) to purchase Wanhe products (excluding flue machines), the old machine can be worth 120 yuan / Taiwan.

While lagging products are gradually being eliminated, condensing water heaters have become the main new products for mainstream companies. The condensing water heater adopts a condensing heat exchange device, which recovers the sensible heat and latent heat in the flue gas, improves the thermal efficiency, and has an obvious energy saving effect, and can save energy by 20% compared with an ordinary gas water heater.

Condensing water heaters, with their significant energy-saving features, have become mainstream technology companies competing to overcome their gas-fired water heaters after being included in the energy efficiency regulatory system. At present, Wanhe, Wanjiale, Linnei, energy efficiency, Haier, Midea and many other companies are pushing condensing gas water heaters.

As the price of energy-saving gas water heaters is even closer to the people and the mid- to high-end trends in consumer spending are more obvious, the future of condensing gas water heaters is promising.

Reporter Comments

The market needs the government to guide the development of the gas water heater industry in advance. There are currently two key points. One is to further protect consumer safety, the other is how to effectively implement energy conservation upgrades and make greater contribution to energy conservation and emission reduction.

In terms of safety, flue gas water heaters have been used for a long time and have been installed improperly, causing great safety risks. At the same time, reports that some old gas-fired water heaters have threatened the lives of users have always existed. At present, mainstream companies such as Wanhe, Wanjiale and Sakura have ceased production of flue-type gas water heaters gradually. However, some of the "junk-branded" companies of flue gas water heaters still exist in the third and fourth-tier markets with low prices.

"It is precisely because the state policy does not explicitly prohibit the production and sale of flue-type gas water heaters, so many brand-name companies are still producing and selling." A person in charge of mainstream industry companies told reporters. Therefore, to fundamentally reduce the safety accidents of gas water heaters, in addition to the mainstream companies to accelerate the elimination of the pace, popularization of gas water heater installation and use of common sense, but also need the national relevant departments can introduce a clear guiding policy to promote the industry to product upgrade path, eliminate Unsafe products, while making products with higher safety factors become mainstream.

In terms of energy saving, the 2008 energy-efficient labeling of gas-fired water heaters began to be implemented, which enabled the mainstream companies in the industry to move toward the technological development path of energy-saving upgrades. At present, Wanhe, Wanjiale, Haier, Sakura and other mainstream companies have introduced condensing water heaters, and some companies have also promoted the popularity of energy-saving gas water heaters through activities such as “renewal of trade” initiated by companies.

However, as a whole, the power of enterprises is ultimately limited. The price of condensing gas water heaters is high, and companies will face cost pressures for price reduction sales, and consumer acceptance without price cuts is still relatively limited.

From the perspective of the practices of developed countries and the energy saving and upgrading process of other household electrical appliances (such as refrigerators and air conditioners) in China, the government usually adopts two measures to promote energy conservation and emission reduction. One is to formulate policies to phase out high-energy products and promote energy-saving products. The second is to formulate a subsidy policy to promote the production of energy-saving products and lower the price of energy-saving products. For example, in the air-conditioning industry, the implementation of energy-saving and people-friendly projects has greatly promoted the popularity of energy-saving air-conditioning.

Currently in Europe, Japan, the United States, and Australia have supporting consumer subsidies and policy support for energy-saving water heaters.

At present, China's gas water heaters are also facing the price bottleneck of energy-saving product promotion. To achieve a comprehensive upgrade of industry safety and energy conservation, it is still necessary for governments and enterprises to work together to promote.