The household appliance market in 2025 exhibited a trend of "high start, low finish." Domestically, the marginal effect of the "old-for-new" subsidy policy waned. Data from AVC indicates the domestic retail market for home appliances (excluding 3C products) was approximately 893.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.3%. Retail growth turned negative starting in Q3, with the year-on-year decline widening to 16.0% in the second half. Externally, exports declined due to the impact of "reciprocal tariffs." Customs data shows home appliance exports in 2025 were about $96.233 billion, down 3.9% year-on-year, with quarterly declines of 2.2%, 8.9%, and 7.9% from Q2 to Q4.
According to AVC statistics, the domestic retail volume of major white goods in 2025 was approximately 165 million units, with a retail value of about 483.7 billion yuan, representing decreases of 4.8% and 1.3%, respectively, compared to 2024. Categories like refrigerators, washing machines, and dryers saw declines in both volume and price. While the retail volume of air conditioners grew 4.4% compared to 2024, retail value saw a slight 0.4% decrease.
As of April 30, all 10 A-share listed companies in the white goods sector (classified by Shenwan secondary industry) have disclosed their 2025 annual reports. Combined data shows these 10 companies achieved total operating revenue of 1.09 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.3%. The "big three"—Midea Group, Haier Smart Home, and Gree Electric—collectively contributed 85.3% of this total. The combined net profit attributable to shareholders (including losses) was 85.043 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.6%. *ST Konka A alone recorded a massive loss of 12.582 billion yuan.
Breaking down further, the three air conditioning companies reported total revenue of 717.549 billion yuan and combined net profit of 76.135 billion yuan, up 4.0% and 2.8%, respectively, from 2024. The seven washing appliance companies reported total revenue of 374.427 billion yuan, up 4.9% from 2024, but their combined net profit (including losses) was 8.908 billion yuan, a sharp 47.6% decline year-on-year. During the reporting period, Gree Electric, Hisense Home Appliances, *ST Konka A, and Aucma saw declines in both revenue and profit, while Xueqi Electric increased revenue without a corresponding profit increase.
Compared to the beginning of the year, only four companies saw their stock prices rise in 2025. Aucma's stock rose 21.8%, driven by market enthusiasm for concepts like "unmanned retail" and "super brand," coupled with signals of focusing on core business through divestments like selling an idle industrial park and listing an information industrial park for transfer. In contrast, TCL Smart Home's stock price fell 20.9% over the year. The forced auction of 35 million shares held by its second-largest shareholder, Zhuxin Ruikang, which received no bids, indicates market valuation disagreements regarding TCL Smart Home.
In terms of revenue scale, Midea Group led with 458.502 billion yuan, approximately 1.51 times that of second-place Haier Smart Home and nearly 290 billion yuan more than Gree Electric, the second-largest air conditioner maker. Midea alone accounted for over 40% of the total revenue of the listed white goods companies. Xueqi Electric had the lowest revenue at 2.000 billion yuan. Whirlpool China, while second-lowest in revenue scale, achieved a year-on-year growth rate far exceeding its peers at 23.2%. Its performance announcement indicated strong overseas demand for products like washing machines, refrigerators, and dishwashers drove increased export orders. Conversely, Aucma saw both domestic and export performance worsen, with domestic and export revenue falling 12.1% and 11.6%, respectively, dragging overall revenue down 12.9% from 2024.
Overseas business has transformed from a past "bonus" to a "core engine" driving growth, hedging risks, and shaping long-term value for home appliance companies. All 10 white goods companies have overseas market presence. Haier Smart Home and Midea Group both have overseas revenue exceeding 100 billion yuan, growing 8.2% and 15.9%, respectively, from 2024. Whirlpool China's revenue from foreign regions accounted for a high 95.8%, with the U.S. as its largest single market. TCL Smart Home's overseas revenue from its own brands grew 115% year-on-year, with overseas revenue accounting for about 77.7% of the total. Gree Electric's export business also primarily consists of its own brand products, with over 85% going to Belt and Road countries, but overall exports only accounted for 16.1% of total revenue, a slight increase of 1.2 percentage points year-on-year.
Regarding cost control, 2025 saw significant volatility in metal raw material prices, with copper and aluminum prices rising 34% and 22%, respectively, impacting the production of white goods like air conditioners and refrigerators/freezers. Midea Group also ranked first in operating costs at 335.990 billion yuan, a 12.2% increase year-on-year, closely matching its revenue growth rate. Although second-place Haier Smart Home partially hedged copper price impacts through its global procurement system, there was a time lag in cost pass-through; its operating costs grew 7.4% from 2024, 1.7 percentage points higher than its revenue growth rate. TCL Smart Home was the only company to see an absolute decrease in operating costs. Benefiting from scale procurement advantages for materials like copper and plastics, its costs fell 2.0% despite a slight 0.9% revenue increase.
Operating costs for white goods companies generally remained between 70%-80% of operating revenue. However, *ST Konka A's operating costs accounted for a high 95.9% of revenue, with its gross profit margin on sales as low as 4.1%, ranking last among the 10 companies. Its performance announcement showed the gross margin for its white goods business fell 1.5% from 2024, and its color TV business was unprofitable, recording a gross margin of -2.11%. Gree Electric topped the list with a gross profit margin on sales of 29.8%, essentially flat compared to 2024. Despite a 9.9% year-on-year revenue decline, bringing it back to 2021 levels, its cost reduction matched the revenue decline, benefiting from long-term centralized procurement and hedging mechanisms for core raw materials like copper and steel.
In terms of expense efficiency, Midea Group, TCL Smart Home, and Gree Electric all kept their total selling, administrative, and R&D expenses under 10 billion yuan in 2025, with expense ratios continuing to optimize. Expense levels at Haier Smart Home and Hisense Home Appliances were highly correlated with business changes, and both are improving their expense ratios through digitalization or structural adjustments. Changhong Meiling, Aucma, and *ST Konka A saw uncontrollable expense growth, severely eroding profits.
During the reporting period, Haier Smart Home had the highest selling expense ratio at 11.2%, with the increase primarily from retail innovation and global resource integration in overseas markets. In stark contrast, Whirlpool China and Xueqi Electric, both pure contract manufacturing or OEM-oriented export companies with stable orders from large overseas clients requiring no self-brand marketing investment, had selling expense ratios of only 1.3% and 1.4%, respectively.
Although Changhong Meiling's administrative expenses accounted for only 1.3% of revenue, they grew significantly by 13.7% year-on-year, more than double its revenue growth rate, reflecting internal issues like失控的 headquarters management scale and rapidly rising employee costs. *ST Konka A saw its administrative expense ratio被动 rise to 5.7%, the highest among peers, due to a sharp shrinkage in its revenue base from declining consumer electronics business. Haier Smart Home followed closely, with its administrative expense ratio rising 0.31 percentage points year-on-year to 4.6%, partly due to short-term concentrated cost pressures from organizational adjustments like factory closures in Europe and team localization in the Middle East in Q4.
As an ODM export company, Xueqi Electric led the 10 companies in R&D expense growth, with absolute R&D spending up 10.4% year-on-year and an R&D expense ratio of about 4.0%. Its performance announcement indicated the company aims to enhance product embeddedness and intelligence through increased R&D investment, gradually moving away from the low-margin trap of low-end ODM towards larger capacity, smarter, and more efficient products. Although Changhong Meiling's R&D investment also increased significantly by 14.2% compared to 2024, its R&D expense ratio was not outstanding, remaining low at 2.4%. Against the backdrop of "revenue growth without profit growth," much of its R&D spending failed to translate into a competitive product portfolio.
In terms of profitability, Midea Group was far ahead, reporting net profit attributable to shareholders of 43.945 billion yuan, a 14.0% year-on-year increase, approximately 1.52 times and 2.25 times the net profit of second-place Gree Electric and third-place Haier Smart Home, respectively. Aucma and *ST Konka A recorded losses, which expanded by 340.0% and 237.7%, respectively, from 2024. Aucma saw weak growth in refrigeration appliances like freezers and a sharp drop in revenue from new businesses like living appliances and air conditioners. The company concentrated impairment provisions of up to 168 million yuan in Q4, accounting for about 78.5% of its annual loss. *ST Konka A also incurred a massive loss due to asset impairments. Following China Resources' formal entry as a controlling shareholder, a "financial cleanup" was conducted on various assets including long-term equity investments, accounts receivable, inventory, and investment properties, resulting in total provisions of 7.697 billion yuan. Whirlpool China's net profit attributable to shareholders surged 157.6% year-on-year, forming a "scissors gap" with its revenue growth, with the core drivers being gross margin improvement and expense reduction.
Overall, Gree Electric ranked first among the 10 companies with a net profit margin on sales of 16.9%, down 0.2 percentage points from 2024, and about 5 percentage points higher than the net margins of second-place Whirlpool China and third-place TCL Smart Home. *ST Konka A ranked last with a margin of -124.4%, significantly worsening by 85.6 percentage points from 2024.
Regarding profit quality, only *ST Konka A reported net cash outflow from operating activities during the reporting period. Among the 10 companies, six saw a year-on-year increase in net operating cash flow, with Whirlpool China turning its cash flow positive. Midea Group, Gree Electric, and Haier Smart Home all generated net operating cash flow in the tens of billions: 53.346 billion yuan, 46.383 billion yuan, and 26.003 billion yuan, respectively. Notably, Gree Electric's operating cash flow surged 57.9% year-on-year in 2025 despite declining revenue, benefiting from proactive inventory reduction while structurally extending payment cycles and strengthening downstream collections. It is noteworthy that Changhong Meiling's net cash flow from operating activities plummeted 78.3% year-on-year. The company struggled to extend supplier payment terms, and the proportion of factoring业务 increased, indicating被迫 acceptance of tighter financing conditions to obtain liquidity提前 at a higher cost.
In 2025, Whirlpool China's days sales outstanding approached 150 days, while Changhong Meiling's collection cycle was less than 30 days. Whirlpool China's performance announcement showed accounts receivable from overseas customers accounted for about 88.4% of the total, with nearly half due within 90 days. Changhong Meiling's year-end accounts receivable balance grew 31.9% year-on-year to 2.015 billion yuan, far exceeding its revenue growth rate. Although its receivables turnover efficiency was not明显 impacted, the事实 remains that the company had to make concessions on payment terms to maintain revenue as downstream customers gained stronger bargaining power, leading to extended payment periods.
Changhong Meiling's inventory days were also low, at only 37 days. However, looking quarterly, its inventory balance at the end of Q4 was nearly halved compared to Q2, reflecting the company's换取 of cash flow by大幅压缩 inventory. In contrast, Aucma's inventory days were over 90, increasing 17.7% year-on-year. Although its全冷链 strategy involves diversification, it分散了 production line scheduling and inventory allocation concentration, leading to multi-regional, multi-category inventory积压.