Technical Consumer Goods in Key SEA Markets Up 12% in 1Q

The Technical Consumer Goods industry across the five key Asian markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia registered healthy growth of over 12 percent in first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2010, according to global market research company, GfK.

Four out of the five markets—Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand—achieved double digit expansion in the range of 12 to 30 percent. Indonesia’s Technical Consumer Goods market exhibited the strongest performance, overtaking Vietnam which previously reigned as the highest growth market in the last two quarters, but has slipped to second position in the latest findings with its 17 percent growth.

“Among the five countries, Indonesia was the only market that showed consistent positive growth across all the Technical Consumer Goods sectors GfK tracks,” observed Stanley Kee, Regional Commercial Director for GfK Asia. “Its Telecommunication sector grew by a whopping 39 percent, making it the highest growth record across the board for the first quarter of the year versus the same time period last year.”

Vietnam’s overall growth took a slide to 17 percent from the previous 28 percent growth achieved in quarter four of 2010. While robust double-digit growth rates were reported in the Consumer Electronics, Telecommunication, and Major Domestic Appliances, results generally paled in comparison to the previous quarter with two sectors—Office Equipment and Photo going into the red. Incidentally, Vietnam’s devaluation of the Dong took place in February 2011.

The latest GfK findings also revealed a new category leader—Telecommunications, which managed to surpass the Small Domestic Appliances as the best performing category at 22 percent growth. Trailing in second and third placing are Major Domestic Appliances and Consumer Electronics at 20 and 15 percent achieved growth respectively.

“The current hype surrounding smartphones has been stimulating sales and driving the performance of the Telecommunication industry considerably,” commented Kee. “The developing economies of Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam were the main propellers for the overall Telecommunications sector, recording substantial growths of 39, 37, and 23 percent respectively.”

“In today’s technologically advanced age, we can expect the continual introduction of new gadgets and product features that will appeal to the many tech-hungry consumers who are ever-ready to try out and adopt innovative technological gadgets such as smartphones, tablets, 3-D and LED TVs, etc. This phenomenon will drive the performance of various sectors and steer the overall Technical Consumer Goods industry along this continued growth momentum,” concluded Kee.

GfK Group