Singaporeans' clamour for clean air intensifies

A whopping US$13m was spent for this purpose.

According to GfK Asia, consumers in Singapore concerned about air quality have spent almost USD 13 million on 59,100 units of air treatment appliances in the last twelve months.

Here's more from GfK Asia:

Local consumers are forking out money on such products which average in the low range of USD114 for air humidifiers to as high as USD422 for dehumidifiers.

Air cleaners are the most popular air treatment appliance, making up 41 percent of the total volume sales and contributing 43 percent in dollar value. Out of the last four quarters, demand for air cleaners peaked in July to September where nearly 6,600 units worth over USD 1.48 million were snapped up during this three month period.

“The haze situation due to Indonesian forest fires, together with the El Nino effect hit our shores the hardest around August to September where the reported PSI readings hovered in the moderate range,” observed Ms. Jasmine Lim, account director for Home & Lifestyle, GfK Asia. “As a result, increased demand was likely driven by more health conscious consumers purchasing air cleaners to counter the effects of worsening air qualtiy during this period of time.”

Quarterly GfK reports are also reflecting a consistent uptrend in take up of air cleaners equipped with both ionizer and HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filter. More than 6 in every 10 air cleaners (62%) sold in the last 12 months were those which come enhanced with these two additional features. Its increasing popularity is also a result of manufacturers launching more of such models in the market over the past year, which today stand at 38 out of the total 68 air cleaner models by some of the more popular brands such as Sharp, Novita, Samsung, and Honeywell.

Besides air cleaners, appliances in the air treatment category which GfK Singapore tracks include air humidifiers, dehumidifiers, evaporative coolers and others which offer combinations of these functions.

“Manufacturers are introducing a widening array of more sophisticated air treatment appliances to cater to individual needs and lifestyle, which today vary from portable air cleaners for out of home usage, and even dehumidifiers which comes with mood light therapy, aromatherapy and MP3 functions,” commented Ms. Lim. “As society keeps on progressing and consumers continue to be more informed of the importance and benefits of maintaining healthy air standards, we can be sure that the market for air treatment appliances will continue to grow in size and sophistication,” she concluded.