The Chinese air conditioner market turned around following a sharp retail sales drop last year, as foreign brands recede in terms of market share, according to a white paper released at the 2007-2008 China Household Air Conditioner Industry Summit held yesterday.

The white paper, jointly released by the State Information Center and the State Grid, included the results of monthly sales monitoring at over 2000 retailers in 345 cities.

Retail air conditioner sales nationwide totaled 26.3 million units between August 2006 and July 2007, up 10.04 percent year-on-year, and sales value rose by 6.85 percent, according to the paper.

It is noteworthy that foreign brands have enjoyed less market share and domestic ones more. Foreign brands accounted for less than 15 percent of the total air condition sales and 19 percent of the total sales value. Only a few Japanese brands sold well in a few cities.

The number of competitive air conditioner brands went down to 33 from 52 last year. Market share of the top five brands rose 5.29 percentage points.

(Chinadaily.com.cn September 7, 2007)