BEIJING, June 16 -- Major domestic home appliance chains are giving consumers a pleasant summer surprise by cutting prices of air conditioners to boost sales during the year's best-selling season.

　　The move reverses earlier efforts by domestic air-conditioner makers to raise p rices to pass along high raw-material prices to consumers.

　　Gome Electrical Appliances, the country's largest home appliance chain, said Wednesday that it would slash prices of air conditioners by up to 20 percent at its more than 450 stores nationwide.

　　"The Gome headquarters decided to push down the prices of air conditioners," said Zhang Weibin, general manager of Gome's Shenzhen branch. "We started to cut prices of certain types of air conditioners Wednesday and the price cuts will apply to most of our air conditioners by the weekend."

　　Gome's move came after Suning Appliance, the nation's second-largest consumer electronics retail chain, used discounts to boost sales during a three-week promotion drive.

　　Increases in the price of raw materials, especially copper and aluminum, have weighed on makers of air conditioners and refrigerators, which have seen their profits tumble amid fierce competition.

　　Copper tubing is an essential component in air conditioners, which use as much as 6 kilograms of copper per unit.

　　The price of copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange jumped to 80,000 yuan (US$10,000) per ton May 12, sharply up from 17,000 yuan per ton at the end of last year. The average price of air conditioners rose 4.6 percent year on year to 2,823 yuan in the first quarter, according to market monitoring firm GfK.

　　Major air-conditioner makers such as Guangdong Midea Electric, Gree Electric Appliance Co. and Qingdao Haier raised their prices last month by as much as 15 percent to offset the rising cost of raw materials.

　　But He Yangqing, Gome's brand management director, said the price hikes of raw materials were only excuses invented by manufacturers. "The recent price hikes in the raw materials should not influence the current market," he said.

　　(Source: Shenzhen Daily)