OREANDA-NEWS. December 05, 2012. The Ukrainian Technical Consumer Goods (TCG) market amounted to UAH 11.5 billion in Q3 2012, which is a decrease of 0.8 percent com-pared to the same period last year. The best performing sectors were IT and Telecommunications with 1.6 and 2.6 percent growth, respectively. This performance can be explained with two reasons: the continuous growth of these sectors throughout the year and the demand experi-enced during the "back to school” period.

The most stable performance came from the Small Domestic Appli-ances (SDA) sector, which saw an increase of 3 percent. Major Do-mestic Appliances (MDA), which occupies nearly a quarter of the mar-ket, witnessed a decline of 4 percent in sales, while Consumer Elec-tronics (CE) and Photo decreased by 4 and 5 percent respectively.
Small Domestic Appliances: Awaited rise

The sector of Small domestic appliances showed modest level of growth   (3 percent) reaching about 900 million UAH. The most positive trends came from kitchen appliances, except for bread makers, among which the share of the cheap segment continue growing considerably at a double digit rate. On the contrary, in such groups as meat grinders and juicers the demand for models from the expensive segment significantly increased. Irons and vacuum cleaners are the moderately growing groups. Like in previous peri-ods, one can see a trend of substitution of vacuum cleaners with a bag for a container. Now, every second vacuum cleaner is bought with the con-tainer. As for the personal care devices, there was a reduction in sales rates for razors, epilators, and fans. A slight increase was shown by devic-es for hair styling and hair clippers.
Telecommunications: Smartphones victory over the mobile phones

The total volume of the Telco in Jul-Sep 2012 amounted to 2.24 billion UAH. It is by 3percent higher than in the same period last year. The sales volume of smartphones increased significantly – this segment covers over 50 percent of the market and saw a gradual decrease in prices and a grow-ing demand for devices with two SIM-cards. At the same time, the sales of mobile phones are still shrinking at a double digit rate. This led to a reduc-tion of the share of mobile phones in the total volume of the Telco sector. Besides, the shares of fixed-line telephones and faxes are declining to 18 percent and 2 percent, respectively.
Information technologies: Unexpected notebook decline

For the IT market Q3 turned out to be relatively stable, concerning both sales volume and structure. The sector saw growth of 2 percent and amounted to 2.8 billion UAH. The largest share of the market is still occu-pied by the segment of notebooks, while the total sales volume in this sector has decreased (5 percent). Due to the reduction of prices for ultra-thin laptops, sales volume in this sector recorded a triple-figures increase. Instead, there is a reduced demand for netbooks. A sales drop was also seen for desktop computers and monitors. The most rapid growth was shown by the media tablets* group (+185 percent) and its share within the sector reached 8percent. Computer mice and keyboards showed a gradual growth. The rate of sales growth of electronic books decreased and amounted to only 12 percent compared with the same quarter of the previ-ous year.

* media tablets (based on the GfK classification) are portable devices with a diagonal varying from 5.6 inches, mobile OS and ARM processor (or similar to it).
Major Domestic Appliances: Overall decline in the sector

The market of major domestic appliances showed a 4 percent decline; the same dynamics retained if we compare the data for the first three quarters of 2012. Despite a hot July, the sales of refrigerators and freezers have not reached the level of sales of the same quarter of 2011 and have lost 3 percent and 9percent respectively. The only group with neutral dynamics was washing machines, which in spite of a -1 percent gap, if comparing the quarterly data, managed to achieve the sales rates of January-September 2011. The largest decline in comparison with the same quarter of 2011 was seen for driers (-26 percent). Comparing other product groups not so dra-matic fall can be seen for hoods (-1 percent) and Microwave Ovens (-2 percent).
Consumer electronics: Growth rates of TV slow down

The sales rate of Consumer Electronics decreased by 4.5 percent. Only two groups demonstrated their growth, namely: flat-panel TVs and USB memory, increasing by single digits. Regarding the latter, this happened due to an increase of sales of USB-memory with bigger capacity. The rea-son behind flat-panel TV growth is the increase in the share of liquid crystal devices, while the sales of plasma panels are drastically decreasing. The growth of the group of flat panel TVs is also connected with a penetration of advanced technologies, which are gradually becoming more accessible - 3D TVs and Smart TV showing increases in volumes. Furthermore, there is a tendency towards larger screens - the largest growth was demonstrated by the diagonal of 40 and 42 inches, while the diagonal size of 32" is losing its leading position. In the market of home theaters, there is a trend in the reduction of the share of systems with 5 speakers and subwoofers that led to a 31 percent sales decrease. Thus, one can see a transition of consumers to more high-tech large devices.
Photo market: Decline for the first time in 2012

In Quarter 3 the Photo sector declined for the first time in 2012 by 5 percent in value terms if compared to the same period of the previous year and amounted to 504 million UAH. This is the consequence of gradual market saturation with SLRs. But the trends in the segments have been retained - the share of SLR cameras has increased, while the share of cheap compact cameras decreased. System cameras, which were launched on the Ukrainian market only 2 years ago, continue growing moderately. In general, it should be noted that Ukrainian consumers tend to change their attitude to photo, which is manifested in the transition to high-er quality and the more expensive segments of photo devices.
Office Equipment: Tendencies are kept

The market for Office Equipment continued falling; market volume amount-ed to 230 million UAH which is 13 percent less than in similar period last year.

Market structure remained the same and the most significant products were still multifunctional devices – 65 percent of the market (148 million UAH). Printers took 32 percent of the market for 73.8 million UAH. However, both of these groups decreased by 14 percent. Scanners demonstrated the slowest rate of decline, however this segment is the smallest on the market and amounts only 4 percent of the market.
Summary

Against the background of the negative quarter, September did well to show some positive dynamics. This fact can be explained by the devalua-tion of UAH because of the October elections to the Verkhovna Rada. According to the results of Consumer Confidence Study in Ukraine conducted by GfK Ukraine, one can see an increase in the index of the expediency of big purchases, which often positively respond to the devaluation expectations. Despite quite negative indicators in January-September 2012 (-0.7 percent), a moderate growth at the level of 3 percent is forecasted for the whole year of 2012. There are some assumptions that the market will be led to the "green zone” because of the IT sector and Major domestic appliances sector. Compared to the first nine months of 2012, the trend in the sector of Small domestic appliances will change: the sales are expected to decline by -5 percent in 2012.