Market for consumer water treatment systems in China to reach Yuan 26 bn

The demand for consumer water treatment systems in China is projected to grow 17% per year to Yuan 26.2 billion (about $4.26 billion) in 2017, according to the Freedonia Group’s new report, ‘Consumer Water Treatment Systems in China’. Toni Niu, Analyst, Freedonia Group, “Consumers in China are becoming increasingly aware of the need for supplemental water treatment to ensure that even the municipally treated water they consume meets health standards.”
 
Rapid industrialisation and economic growth coupled with an insufficient water treatment infrastructure will continue to prompt Chinese consumers’ concerns about water contamination and inferior tap water quality.
 
Greater awareness of the health and aesthetic benefits provided by water treatment systems will result in double-digit annual growth in demand for these products in China for the foreseeable future. Continuing increases in disposable personal incomes will provide fundamental support for the gains. This elevated purchasing power is boosting market penetration for consumer water treatment systems, especially in urban locales. However, further gains will be limited by the habit of many consumers in China to boil water prior to consumption in the belief that boiled water is safe enough to drink.
 
Point-of-use systems (POU) will continue to account for the larger share of value demand due to their greater operational flexibility and lower costs. Sales of POU water treatment systems in China are expected to grow at an annual pace of 16.6% through 2017 to Yuan 23.4 billion (about $3.80 billion), accounting for nearly 90 percent of the overall market. Faster growth will be registered by countertop and under-sink systems, a large share of which use membranes and other nonconventional filtration technology, offering water treatment superior to flow-through and faucet-mounted systems.
 
However, an increasing share of households are expected to install point-of-entry (POE) systems. Growth in new housing construction spending will support sales of these whole-house water treatment systems, since they are more often installed in newly built homes than in home improvement activities. Moreover, to achieve better water purification results, POE and POU systems are increasingly being utilised in tandem.