December swoom for TV, fridge salesmen
December swoom for TV, fridge salesmen
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
While holiday festivities draw nigh, electronic products
manufacturers are not so cheerful as sales growth this year is
expected to be slower than initially projected.
Lee Khang Hyun, chairman of the Association of Electronic
Industry (Gabel), said that sales in 2002 were estimated to grow
by only 10 percent compared to the previous projection of 25
percent.
"This year's holiday season is not too good. Normally, sales
pick up in the second semester but it's slightly lower now than
last year's," Lee told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
He said that people now preferred to save their money to
finance their longer vacation period.
The government has recently extended the holiday period for
the Muslim Idul Fitri celebration to three days from the
traditionally two-day period, and to two days for Christmas.
According to him, sales of televisions and refrigerators in
the past had always been good in the run up to the Idul Fitri or
Christmas celebrations.
"But during this holiday, refrigerator and TV sales are not
too good," Lee remarked.
He speculated that the weaker sales performance could be
attributed to the Oct. 12 Bali bombing incident which had hurt
consumers sentiment and weakened the exchange rate of the rupiah
against the U.S. dollar.
Since the production of electronic goods are heavily dependent
on imported raw materials, a favorable exchange rate is crucial
to make the goods more affordable to the people.
"People haven't recovered from the event. They're still
waiting to see what transpires with the exchange rate to get a
better price," Lee said.
The declining trend in the sales of electronic goods has
actually been felt since the middle of this year. Sales of TVs
were down 20 percent in July to 220,000 units compared to the
previous month, while the sales of refrigerators dropped by more
than 22 percent to 110,000 units.
Massive layoffs in many textile companies in the beginning of
the year had also contributed to the sluggish sales performance.
Many manufacturers initially hoped that the year-end
festivities would help boost sales in the second semester,
projecting TV sales to reach 2.7 million units, while sales of
refrigerators would reach 1.5 million.