Price of air conditioners to rise

Raw materials make up some 90% of the cost of a room air conditioner: 30% copper, 45% steel plate and 15% aluminium.
According to World Bank data, the price of copper roughly doubled between 2009 and early 2011, that of steel plate rose by about 25% and that of aluminium by almost 50%. According to many leading air-conditioner manufacturers, these higher prices of raw materials will inevitably impact air conditioner prices for the coming months. Refrigerant prices also increased sharply in 2010. This is true for R410A as well as R22, the price of which tripled between the beginning and the end of 2010 .
In China, - which produced some 80 million air conditioners in 2010 (see above), many of which still use R22 – the spiraling prices of raw materials and refrigerants are exceeding the capacity of manufacturers to absorb them, and increases of about 10% are expected this year.