According to the announcement, Haier Smart Home plans to invest in the construction of a 5 million unit air conditioner project through its subsidiary, Qingdao Haier HVAC Equipment Technology Co., Ltd., in the Jiaozhou Economic Demonstration Zone of Qingdao. The project will mainly produce products such as wall-mounted units, fan coil units, multi-split units, heat pump units, fresh air units, floor-standing units, and ceiling units. It will mainly target domestic markets such as Shandong, northeast China, and north China, as well as overseas markets such as Europe, North America, Australia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

The project plans to invest 2.494 billion yuan and is expected to start production in the first phase in September 2026 and in the second phase in December 2027. According to Haier Smart Home's prediction, the static payback period for the above investment is 4.98 years.

According to Haier Smart Home, "With the background of global climate warming and energy transformation, the demand for eco-friendly, high-efficiency air conditioner products and air solutions has increased. There is still great potential for high-efficiency, comfortable, and intelligent air conditioner products to grow."

In fact, due to factors such as consumer environment and weather, the domestic air conditioner market performed poorly in 2024. The recent Goldman Sachs research report, which has received much attention from investors, has also classified the air conditioning industry as having excess production capacity.

However, Goldman Sachs predicts that the air conditioning industry will maintain a good supply and demand structure and profitability under the support of factors such as diversified market demand, self-discipline in capital expenditures by air conditioning companies, increased focus on profit margins by air conditioning companies, and highly integrated supply structure.

In addition to announcing the above expansion plan, Haier Smart Home also disclosed its performance for the first half of 2024. The company's revenue in the first half of 2024 increased by 3.03% year-on-year to 135.623 billion yuan, and its net income attributable to the parent company grew by 16.26% year-on-year to 10.42 billion yuan. In the semi-annual report, Haier Smart Home stated that the Chinese home appliance industry has entered a new stage driven by renewed demand. Although factors such as cautious expectations of income growth and weakened consumer confidence restrained the release of demand in the first half of the year, the trend of low-end segmentation in the industry structure is evident. However, the policy of replacing old appliances with new ones is expected to stimulate demand.

At the same time as announcing the above-mentioned expansion plan, Haier Smarthome also disclosed its performance for the first half of 2024. The company's revenue for the first half of 2024 increased by 3.03% year-on-year to 135.623 billion yuan; net income attributable to shareholders increased by 16.26% year-on-year to 10.42 billion yuan. Haier Smarthome stated in its semi-annual report that the Chinese home appliance industry has entered a new stage dominated by demand for updates. Although factors such as cautious expectations of income growth and weakened consumer confidence in the first half of the year suppressed the release of demand, the industry structure showed a clear trend towards lower-end products. However, the policy of trading-in old appliances for new ones is expected to stimulate demand.

Just the day before, the latest details on the trade-in of old appliances for new ones were released. The notice specifies that each region will independently determine the subsidy for the "8+N" category of home appliances, with a maximum subsidy of 2000 yuan per item.

For the overseas market, Haier SmartHome believes that in the second half of 2024, developed countries are expected to enter an interest rate reduction cycle, which will gradually boost the entire real estate market and be conducive to the release of the previously suppressed demand for household appliances. In emerging market countries, as the urbanization rate increases, the household appliance penetration rate will also rise. Additionally, factors such as the acceleration of local supply chain layout by household appliance companies and other factors, the household appliance industry is expected to continue to achieve growth.