Prices of home appliances to increase by 10% in January due to hike in prices of supplies

The cost of televisions, refrigerators and other home appliances can go up by as much as 10 per cent in the second week of January, due to the sharp 15-40% rise in the price of commodities, such as copper, steel, aluminium and ABS plastic.

The increase in the ocean and air freight have further added the need for the appliance manufacturers in India for the price hike.

As the sellers in India are largely dependent on supplies from foreign markets, especially China when it comes to appliances, almost all the major brands have either decided to hike the price or are mulling over it.

Sources reveal that washing machines and air conditioners (ACs) prices may go up by 8-10 per cent, and the rates of refrigerators might witness a spike of 12- 15 per cent. On the other hand, the prices of televisions could rise by 7-20 per cent.

According to India Today Tech, Nilesh Gupta, Director, Vijay Sales, one of India's biggest offline retailers told that currently, the prices haven't increased but the indications from the brands are that they will go up by 7-10% in the second week of January.

"This would be across brands and applies to categories like televisions, refrigerators, washing machines."

Earlier this week, LG Electronics India also confirmed to PTI that it is going to increase the price by a minimum of 7 to 8 per cent across its products in the appliance category from January 1 next year.

"From January, we are going to increase the price 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.