Ailing electronics makers Sharp Corp. and Panasonic Corp. are boosting sales of air purifiers in China as pollution worsens in the world’s most populous country, in a bid to recover from record losses.
Sharp’s sales of the products, built mainly in Shanghai, tripled last month from a year earlier, company spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said Thursday in Tokyo, spurring the Osaka-based manufacturer to increase output.
Panasonic’s production of air purifiers for the Chinese market in January was 50 percent above average, Chieko Gyobu, a spokeswoman for the firm, said Thursday.
Air quality in Beijing deteriorated beyond World Health Organization safe limits every day last month as smoke from coal-powered plants, factory emissions, car fumes and dust amassed over the city. Official measurements of the airborne particulates that pose the greatest health risks rose as high as 993 micrograms per cu. meter in the Chinese capital Jan. 12, compared with the WHO upper limit of 25.
“The spike in demand may help Panasonic and Sharp,” said Mitsuo Shimizu, a Tokyo-based analyst at Iwai Cosmo Holdings Inc. “The Japanese companies have good technology.”
Sharp’s air purifier sales in China doubled last year as people grew more conscious about the environment, making up about 30 percent of the company’s sales of household electrical appliances in China, Nakayama said.
The manufacturer generated 20 percent of its total sales in China in the last fiscal year, making it Sharp’s biggest overseas market.
The company’s Plasmacluster line of air purifiers disperse positive and negative ions into the air that attach to and break down pollutants. The technology kills germs, molds and odors, according to the company’s website.
Forecasting a record ¥450 billion net loss in the year ending March 31, Sharp has sold assets, chopped its workforce and mortgaged its Osaka headquarters as it seeks to return to profit.
Meanwhile, Panasonic projects a ¥765 billion loss this fiscal year.
China added 15.1 million new cars last year, and has 16 of the world’s 20 most-polluted cities, according to the World Bank.
Pollution drifting from China also caused spikes in levels of airborne particulates in areas of Japan last month, including the cities of Fukuoka and Kagoshima, prompting Tokyo to call for talks with Beijing to exchange information and discuss possible cooperation.
“This is an issue that could affect Japan and is, therefore, one in which the government has a great interest,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters Feb. 8.
Sales of air purifiers are also beginning to rise at faster pace than a year ago in some areas of Japan as the hay-fever season approaches, Sharp’s Nakayama said.