Chinese Can’t Produce TVs Fast Enough

PEKING —  Television sets that were a luxury in China a few years ago have become such a necessity that factories cannot keep up with soaring demand--even though a color set costs about twice a city worker’s annual wage.

Chinese television production in the first six months of 1985 leaped 84% to nearly 8 million sets, while imports, mainly Japanese, were up nearly sixfold from 1984 levels to 2.3 million sets from 398,000.

Local Demand

“We used to export sets but have stopped doing so because of local demand,” said Song Daorong, an official of Peking’s Dong Feng factory, the first in China to make color sets.

“Everything we make is sold at once, with buyers putting down the money and then waiting up to six months,” she told Reuters.

“The delay in rural areas is longer than that.”

Prices of her factory’s black and white sets begin at $151 with an 18-inch color set selling for $510. The average urban wage in China is about $25 a month.

At the television counter in Peking’s biggest department store, customers jostle for space as they size up the latest Japanese Hitachi and Sharp sets on display.

“In black and white sets, Chinese brands can match those from Japan, but customers prefer imported ones when they buy a color set,” a saleswoman said.

The Japanese giant manufacturers have the market both ways, with several of China’s leading companies using their equipment and components.

Two Production Lines

The Dong Feng factory has two color-television production lines, both imported from Japan, and imports 90% of its parts.

“The Japanese gave us second-hand equipment and refuse to give us their latest technology,” Song complained.

She estimated that almost all households in major cities now had a set, but ownership in rural areas was much lower.

“The domestic market is enormous, but we are already thinking ahead to the time when it is saturated and we will have to make other products,” Song said.