China's TCL Smart Home Jumps as Global Refrigerator Giant Expands Thailand Plant(Yicai) Sept. 15 -- Shares of TCL Smart Home Appliances rose after the Chinese white goods maker said its unit, one of the world’s leading original design manufacturers of refrigerators, started trial production following an expansion of its Thailand plant.
TCL Smart Home [SHE: 002668] closed 4.5 percent higher at CNY9.49 (USD1.30), after advancing more than 5 percent intraday. The benchmark Shenzhen Component Index fell 0.7 percent.
The second phase of the Thailand production base, with an annual capacity of 1.4 million refrigerators, has been completed and entered trial production, the Guangdong province-based company said yesterday. The first phase, which can make 300,000 freezers a year, went into operation early this year.
The commissioning of the second phase will help optimize TCL Smart Home’s product mix, better meet the needs of its global market expansion, improve supply reliability and order responsiveness for overseas clients, and strengthen its ability to respond to changes in the international trade environment and withstand risks, the firm said.
Refrigerators and freezers are TCL Smart Home’s core business. The segment generated CNY8.2 billion (USD1.1 billion) in operating revenue in the first half of this year, accounting for more than four-fifths of the company’s total, according to its latest interim earnings report.
Foreign markets account for most of TCL Smart Home’s business. Overseas operations contributed CNY8.4 billion in operating revenue during the period, making up nearly 85 percent of the total.
TCL Smart Home first announced plans to build a refrigerator production facility in Southeast Asia in January 2025. In June that year, it said its subsidiary Homa Appliances would invest in and build the facility in Chon Buri, Thailand, with the planned investment raised to CNY680 million (USD94.7 million).
Homa is one of the world’s leading original design manufacturers of refrigerators. Before the Thailand plant came on stream, Homa’s annual shipments had already exceeded 14 million units.
Editor: Emmi Laine
