LED TV and appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines are likely to get expensive by around 10 per cent from January. This price is expected due to a rise in costs of key input materials like copper, aluminium and steel as well as increase in ocean and air freight charges. Additionally, prices of TV panels (Opencell) have also been increased two-fold due to shortage in supply by global vendors. Cost of plastic has also gone up due to an increase in crude oil prices.
Manufacturers such as LG, Panasonic and Thomson are going to increase prices from January. Sony is still reviewing the situation.
Panasonic India President and CEO Manish Sharma said that they expect the increase in commodity prices to impact the product pricing in near future. “I anticipate the prices to go up by 6-7 per cent in January itself and may go up to 10-11 per cent towards the end of FY Q1,” he said, as mentioned in a report in PTI.
LG Electronics India is also going to increase the price by 7-8 per cent across its appliances. “From January, we are going to increase the price of 7-to 8 per cent on all products including TV, washing machine, refrigerator etc. There is an increase in raw material prices and metals as copper and aluminium. Moreover, crude oil prices have gone up, hence the cost of plastic materials have also gone up substantially,” said LG Electronics India VP-Home Appliances Vijay Babu, as mentioned in the report.
Sony, however, said that they are watching the supply side which is currently changing day by day. Managing Director Sunil Nayyar said that there is excess demand due to work from home and there is limited supply because factories are not running at full capacity.
Prices of small screen sizes have already gone up significantly. “Of course, the large screen also has an issue but I do not think it is troubling. India is still a predominantly 32-inch screen size market,” said Nayyar.
Super Plastronics, the brand licensee for French Electronics brand Thomson and Kodak said that there is a scarcity of TV Opencell in the market and prices have gone up by 200 per cent. “Due to no alternative of panel manufacture at the global stage, we are dependent on China. So, Thomson and Kodak will increase the android TV prices by 20 per cent from January,” said SPPL CEO Avneet Singh Marwah.
Meanwhile, Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA) has said that a price hike will hamper overall demand
