According to the latest production schedule report on three major white goods released by ChinaIOL, the combined production schedule for air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines in June 2026 totaled 30.04 million units, down 11.8% compared to the same period last year.

According to new retail market monitoring data from AVC (All View Cloud), in April 2026, the total monitored retail volume of major home appliance categories reached 597,000 units, up 5.5% YoY, with total retail revenue of 1.62 billion yuan, up 8.4% YoY. Among the major categories in April, those with YoY increases in sales revenue included kitchen appliance packages (72.2%), color TVs (31.5%), electric storage water heaters (26.3%), refrigerators (24.4%), washing machines (17.9%), freezers (7.2%), rice cookers (6.3%), and gas water heaters (2.8%). Categories with YoY declines included induction cookers (6.4%), range hoods (9.9%), air conditioners (11.1%), electric fans (17.9%), gas stoves (32.7%), and electric pressure cookers (63.2%).

In April 2026, the output of NdFeB blanks reached 32,603 metric tons, representing a significant month-on-month increase of 8.73% and a year-on-year rise of 9%. The industry-wide average operating rate climbed to 76.37%, indicating an accelerated expansion. According to SMM's frontline research, production is expected to further increase to 34,097 tons in May, a month-on-month growth of approximately 5%. If this forecast materializes, it will mark the highest production level since January 2025.

Q1 has ended. From an order perspective, January orders weakened seasonally, February coincided with the Chinese New Year holiday when most galvanized sheet producers in China were on holiday, and although galvanized sheet enterprises gradually resumed operations in March, overall utilization rates were lower than last year on a YoY basis.

[How Should Zinc Consumption Be Viewed Against the Backdrop of Geopolitical Conflicts?] Q1 2026 had passed, and the overall recovery in post-holiday consumption was somewhat delayed. How would consumption perform going forward?

According to the latest production schedule report on the three major white goods categories released by ChinaIOL, the combined production schedule for air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines in April 2026 totaled 37.64 million units, down 3.6 YoY compared to actual production in the same period last year. By product, the production schedule for household air conditioners in April was 21.32 million units, down 4.9 YoY compared to actual production in the same period last year; refrigerator production schedule was 8.21 million units, down slightly 0.1 YoY compared to actual production in the same period last year; washing machine production schedule was 8.11 million units, down 3.7 YoY compared to actual production in the same period last year.