A sharp rise in consumer durable prices, driven by escalating raw material costs, could weigh on festive-season demand for air-conditioners, LED TVs and washing machines, industry experts said.
Industry executives and experts said prices of key inputs such as copper, steel, aluminium and plastics have surged amid heightened geopolitical tensions in West Asia, while a weakening rupee against the US dollar has further increased cost pressures.
“We have increased the prices to partially offset the huge escalation in the prices of copper, steel, aluminium and plastics. In addition, the weakening of the rupee and freight costs are also a burden. Compared with last year, the prices may be higher by around 13%. But GST is lower by 10%," Blue Star Managing Director B Thiagarajan told TNIE.
"Therefore, the consumer will be paying 3% more compared with last year and 8% more compared with the summer season of this year,” Thiagarajan said. He added, “The demand may drop, but we have to wait and watch. We do not have any headroom for any discounts. I think ACs and Deep Freezers will have the maximum price increase.”
This will be the industry's third round of price hikes in 2026, completely wiping out the benefit received from the GST rate cut of 10% last year. The latest round of price hikes, which will come into effect next month and in November, will lead to a price increase of 3-8% across categories.
An analyst at a leading brokerage firm said that the latest price increases are a near-term headwind for volumes, and price-sensitive categories may see a slowdown or deferred purchases. He, however, feels that festive demand should be supported by pre-stocked inventory and financing options available.
Godrej Enterprises Group Business Head and Executive Vice President Kamal Nandi said another industry-wide price increase has become inevitable after commodity prices rose 8-10% since the previous revision.
Nandi added that buyers may still find products at current prices during the festive season because dealers have already stocked older inventory. "There are pipelines which will last for about a month to one-and-a-half months. Diwali should largely get covered with old-price inventory. Post-Diwali, the new prices will certainly take effect," he told PTI.
Haier India President NS Satish said, “If we avoid taking price hikes, we will lose money. If we increase prices, sales may be slightly impacted, but there is no choice.” He added that Haier plans a cumulative hike of about 15 per cent between now and January.
Satish said copper prices, which were USD 8,000-9,000 per metric ton last year, have now touched USD 14,500 and are expected to keep rising, noting that an air-conditioner requires 3-4 kg of copper.
The price hikes also come at a time when e-commerce firms are holding their largest sales event. Zeba Khan, Director – Consumer Electronics, Amazon India, said that they are heading into the Amazon Great Indian Festival (AGIF), starting October 08, with real optimism for smartphones.
Khan added that affordable finance levers turn intent into a purchase, and this is happening even more so this year. “No-cost EMI offered on Amazon brings down the effective price of a higher-value device by letting customers split payments into easy monthly instalments with zero additional interest...," he said.
"During Prime Day 2026, we saw a large share of buyers use financing to upgrade, with one in four electronics purchases on EMI and four out of five of those on no-cost EMI,” said Khan.
