Air Purifying market in APAC is likely to be worth USD 10.95 billion by 2025

Asia Pacific is a significant market for global air purifier business. About 50% global market is dominated in the APAC region.

China is the largest market for air purifying technology while India and South Korea are the two biggest growth markets.

The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.5% and is likely to be worth USD 10.95 billion by 2025.

Definition / Scope
Market Overview
Key Metrics
Market Risks
Market Drivers
Market Restraints
Technology Trends
Pricing Trends
Regulatory Trends
Market Size and Forecast
Market Outlook
Technology Roadmap
Distribution Chain Analysis
Competitive Landscape
Competitive Factors
Key Market Players
Strategic Conclusion
References
Further Reading
Appendix

Definition / Scope

Air Purifiers basically are the devices that prevent the inward flow or purify contaminated dust particles, smoke, mold, mites and other particulate matters present in the air. These are designed as a compact fan with huge filter surface helping in removing air particles.

These products are highly beneficial for the people suffering from simple allergies to chronic health problems like heart problems, lungs cancer, asthmatics as it improves the indoor air quality.

So, both residential people and numerous commercial organizations use it. Major factors carrying in the declination of air quality are due to the increment in industrialization sectors, urbanization and pollution exhausted from the vehicles.

Thus, the demand of air purifiers are strongly increasing as there exist growing pollutions and airborne diseases in the Asian market considering the safety and good health of people.

Market Overview

PM2.5 is defined as ambient airborne particles measuring up to 2.5 microns in size. Its microscopic size allows the particles to enter the blood stream via the respiratory system and travel throughout the body, causing far-reaching health effects, including asthma, lung cancer and heart disease. Air pollution has also been associated with low birth weight, increased acute respiratory infections and stroke.

Airborne particulate matter can originate from a range of sources. Combustion from vehicle engines, industry, fires and coal burning represent the most common man-made sources, whilst sandstorms, agriculture, and chemicals reacting in the atmosphere represent the most common natural sources.

East Asia and Pacific accounted for nearly 61% of all global CO2 emissions. The region’s highest emitters were China (28.5% of global emissions), India (6.2%), Japan (3.4%), and Indonesia (1.3%). Only 7 of the 47 regional economies with available data were successful in reducing CO2 emissions on a per capita basis that means that the problem is continuing to emerge in the next decade as well. Analyzing PM2.5 data, Bangladesh (83.3 PM2.5 concentration µg/m³), Pakistan (65.8), Mongolia (62), Afghanistan (58.8), India (58.1), and Indonesia (51.7) have highest level in the world.

There has been an exponential rise in demand for air purifiers in these regions. In fact, over 50% of the global market for air purifiers is dominated in the APAC region. Likewise, the commercial air purification segment dominated the market in the region. Also, HEPA emerged as the largest technology segment in 2019 with a market share of 37.8%, owing to improved efficiency of the technology when it comes to trapping dust, dust mites, pollens, and other indoor allergens.

Key Indicators

Key Indicator	Base Year 2019
Market Size	USD 4.86 Billion
CAGR	14.5%
Market Outlook 2025	USD 10.95 Billion
China Market	USD 2.6 Billion (half the APAC market)

Market Drivers

Degrading air quality and rising environmental concerns

Air pollution is a growing concern since past few years. The quality of air is gaseous and impure in both urban and rural areas due to increasing number of vehicles producing contagious air, industrial activities, plant manufacturing companies and so on.

Based on world ranking arranged by average PM2.5 concentration index, the most polluted APAC countries in 2019 are Bangladesh, Pakistan and Mongolia, where PM2.5 is an ambient airborne particle measuring up to 2.5 microns in size. However, increasing in the pollution level has made people aware about their health & the importance of this product. Hence, this obviously increases the demand of air purifier in APAC market.

Covid-19 Impact on air purifier

The global pandemic due to Covid-19 has impacted the air purifier market in several ways. On the positive side, it has been observed that there is an increase in the use of air purifier either due to concern for safety from contagious disease or provoked by WHO guidelines on keeping the room for corona virus infected patients with adequate air flow.

Growing number of energy generation companies

Globally, coal and natural gas mining has heightened, accounting for combined 60% of the world energy sources. The resultant outcomes from extraction of energy from such sources include sulfur oxides (SOx), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NOx), ground level ozone (O3), particulate matters (PM-10 and PM-2.5), lead, and benzene. In Korea for example, there are 52 major coal-fired plants accounting for 30% of power generation in the country.

Market Restraints

Lack of Awareness and Skepticism

In the Indian market, households are still skeptic of installing air purifiers. They believe that indoor air is more pure than outdoor air. More than half of purchase in India comes from institutional buyers including foreign embassies, affluent class, and luxury hotels.

These products in India are still considered as lifestyle household products. Therefore, sales in India are facing sluggish growth. During the biggest Indian festival, Diwali, when pollution level peaks due to firecrackers, people in major cities tend to purchase air purifier that means the window period for sale is just 1-2 months and sales start falling thereafter.

Technology Trends

HEPA filters

HEPA filters consist maize of fibers to choke and block unwanted dust and even bacteria. First, when a particle runs into the fiber it sticks then the particle gets within one diameter of a fiber in the HEPA air purifier and again becomes stuck to the fiber.

Finally, as a very small particle (about 0.1 micron) moves in the gas flow, it dithers about due to collisions with molecules (Brownian motion); the particle slides close to the fiber and becomes caught, purifying dust, as well as stopping many bacteria and viruses. These filters are considered effective to remove 99.97% of particles getting through it.

Activated carbon air filters

Activated carbon filters contain millions of small pores between carbon atoms that can trap or interact with chemical fumes, gases and odors, rendering them harmless. Due to the high surface area of the carbon granules, carbon filters are excellent at trapping gases. These filters are effective in trapping chemical fumes, gases, cigarette smoke and odors.

Ionizers and Ozone generators

These filters produce either negative ions or ozone. Normal particles floating in the air gets magnetically attracted in contact with the ions or the ozone they end up with. That causes them to stick and because of their heavier weight after sticking together, they get attached to surfaces around the room instead of floating through the air.

Product proliferation

Many electronic brands have introduced air conditioners that also feature integrated air purifier. Haier India, for instance, has introduced the innovative PuriCool range of air conditioners to help purify the quality of indoor air from dust, pollen, pet dander, particulate matters and smoke present outside.

Robotic purifiers

Air purifiers typically are set still to clean with a certain periphery. That means nearby rooms beyond fixed boundary don’t benefit. Rydis 800, a robotic purifier, however, roams the house in search of dirty air and purifies it. It combines a HEPA filter using activated carbon with a washable pre-filter.

Pricing Trends

Country	Brand	Model	Min-Max Price Range USD
India	Panasonic	Panasonic F-PXM35AAD Air Purifier	91
India	Panasonic	Panasonic F-PXH55M Air Purifier	413
India	Daikin	Daikin MC76 Room Air Purifier	173
India	Daikin	Daikin Air Purifier Streamer	313
India	LG	Purifier	300
India	LG	PuriCare	1333
Malaysia	Panasonic	Panasonic Humidifying nanoe™ Air Purifier PSN-FVK655	704
Malaysia	Panasonic	Pelembapan 2 Keping FE-ZFG02	20
Japan	Coway	Coway Airmega	229
Japan	LG	LG	299
China	Sharp	Sharp	60
China	Coway	Coway	75
Korea	LG	LG	325
Korea	Panasonic	Panasonic	330

In India, the price for air purifiers varies from USD 90 to USD 1500. The minimum and maximum price range is highly skewed. Because of this dramatic price difference, consumers become skeptic about the product’s efficacy.

In Malaysia, the price based on product depth offered by the same brand varies between USD 20 to USD 800. There is a high price competition for air purifier brands in the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese market. The competitors set aggressive price based on the competitors price signaling.

The average price of a mid to high range air purifier in Japan and Korea is in the range of USD 250- 350 while in China, the similar brand of purifiers are available just under USD 100.

Regulatory Trends

Regulation in South Korea

The regulation to tighten air quality guideline was passed in 2018. Under the changed rules, the standards for PM 2.5 fine dust will be revised to daily average of 35 micrograms per square meters from current 50 micrograms per square meters and yearly average to 15㎍/㎥ from 25㎍/㎥, same as those of Japan and the United States. This regulation will require large plants to install air purifier at a larger level within their premises.

New Air Law in China

Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law also called New Air Law in China require cities to regularly release and submit definitive plans to ensure they are on track to meet national air quality strategy. The law addresses construction industries, food industries, automobile manufacturers, and agriculture industry to control the pollution that is released from these sources. This is the first law to address controlling green house gases.

Market Size and Forecast

Overall Market Size:

The air purifier market size in APAC region was worth USD 4.86 billion in 2019. Asia Pacific is a significant market for global air purifier business. Above 50% global market is dominated in the APAC region. In 2019, the market for air purifying was worth USD 4.86 billion the region.

The market is further expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.5% and is likely to be worth USD 10.95 billion by 2025.

Market Size by Technology:

High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter emerged as the largest technology segment of air purifier in the APAC region with 38% market share. Ionization takes the second position capturing 21% market share followed by activated carbon technology (17% market share).

Market Size by key Countries:

Country	Market Size Billion USD	CAGR %
China	2.6	14
S. Korea	1.5	20
India	0.62	27.9
Australia	0.32	6.5

China holds the majority of the APAC air-purifier market. The market size in China reached USD 2.6 billion in 2019 and will experience a growth rate of 14% till 2025.

South Korea is the second major market crossing USD 1 billion in market size and the growth rate is also in double digit of 20%. India has the highest growth rate of 27.9% but market size is significantly less compared to major markets. Lack of standardization on quality grading of air purifiers and lack of awareness is hindering the Indian air purifier market.

Market Outlook

Market Outlook by Country:

China holds the largest revenue pocket for air purifier market, worth USD 2.6 billion, about half of the APAC market. At a CAGR of 14%, the market size will surpass over USD 5 billion by 2025 in China.

Similarly, South Korea is the second largest market after China representing nearly USD 1.5 billion in size. The Korean air purifying market is estimated to flourish to USD 4.47 billion by 2025 growing at a CAGR of 20%.

India and Australia are other two major markets for air conditioning and purifying business division. The market size in value terms reached USD 62.72 million in India and USD 32 million in Australia in 2019.

In India, the market is projected to grab additional USD 275 million worth of business by 2025, CAGR 28% while in Australia; the value will reach USD 46.69 million at a CAGR of 6.5% by the same forecasted period.

Technology Roadmap

Automotive cabin air purification

Car manufacturers, in light of covid-19, can install plasma air purifiers that can filter air impurities down to PM2.5, which is considered adequate to combat germs and pollution. Use of high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters can also filter germ airborne particles in the cabin when climate control is set for air recirculation making it safer for passengers.

Nano fibers

Nano fibers, the thin material can remove 90% of all particles as small as 2.5 microns, while allowing for flow rates 2.5 times better than conventional air filters. This means that purifiers will not only remove a lot of particles from any air that comes through the machine, they will also move lots of air, resulting in a high rate of overall particle removal.

The Nano fibers to enhance indoor air quality are made with chemical compounds that are commonly used in dyes, but the researchers at Singapore have developed a modification to the molecules that allows them to self-organize, similar to a set of building blocks that can organize it. The Nano fibers exist in a solution and cling to nonwoven mesh.

AI Powered Air Purifier

The BRISE air purifier falls under an innovative stage when it comes to augmenting air purifying technology. The cleaner works to effectively clean the air using the power of AI to know how much or how little it needs to work. The powerful motor within the BRISE delivers over 65-liters of clean air every second to help quickly clear a room of VOCs, dust and other allergens and contaminants.

The accompanying smartphone app for the BRISE allows users to customize how they want the air purifier cleaner to work to ensure it will operate efficiency. These types of air purification technology will become mainstream in the couple of years ahead.

Distribution Chain Analysis

The major transformation in the value chain of the high-tech companies such as LG, Sharp, Panasonic, Daikin, and Coway is adding recycling part in their existing global value chain.

The companies in the air purifying industry partner with global suppliers to procure materials for electronics OEM manufacturing. They should ensure best ethical practice while procuring from suppliers to main clean procurement status.

In the next stage, these companies manufacture not only the air purifiers but also the vast range of product width including air conditioning, televisions, speakers, washing machine, etc. Once the production phase completes, the distributing department keeps record of global order and efficiently plan for the outbound logistics.

The supported activities in this stage are marketing and sales and aftermarket sales and support. Another innovation in the process is that most of the companies have integrated recycling and eco-friendly in their design and engineering phase.

Competitive Landscape

APAC air purifier market is split in countries and China is the largest manufacturing market and the largest consumption market. HEPA filter manufacturers lead the overall market.

Similarly, Chinese electronics manufacturers are dominating the regional market. Midea holds a larger share of pie in the Chinese market. Its residential air-conditioners, in particular, saw a much bigger share in all channels, with an online market share of 30% and an offline market share of nearly 29%.

Similarly, commercial air-conditioners market captured 50% domestic market in 2019. Coway and LG are the leading players based in Korea while Sharp, Panasonic, and Daikin, based in Japan dominate the domestic as well as APAC market.

Competitive Factors

Superior Service

In the APAC markets for air purifiers, not only price and quality but also efficient business networks and maintenance service teams have emerged as important core competencies.

In particular, considering the characteristics of such product group, continued maintenance services for filter replacement and so forth are required, thereby leading customers to prefer companies that have set up service networks across the nation and have maintained a high level of brand awareness.

As a result, only a few major businesses with superior service have dominated the markets.

Customized Product

In the market that is mostly offering due particulate matter and yellow sand, leading competitors have focused on providing clients with customized solutions that they can fully trust, rather than on offering simple air purifiers.

In 2015, for instance, Coway released IoT-based smart air care services for the first time in the health appliance industry. The smart air care system checks indoor air quality in real time, offering customized solutions depending on the degree of pollution.

Key Market Players

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Corp. is a Japanese company involved in the integrated electronics related business. The company operates four different business segments. First, the Appliance segment, which is, engaged in the development, manufacture and sale of air conditioning & air purifier products.

The rest of three, Eco Solutions, Connected Solutions and Automotive & Industrial System are divided into various department of the business like logistic, distribution & development of the products.

The total sales from appliances segment were USD 26.03 billion in 2019. The air conditioning and air purifying is the major business division of this segment. The net sales for appliances segment reached USD 12.87 billion in 2019.

Daikin Industries Ltd.

Daikin Industries Ltd. is a Japan-based company mainly engaged in the manufacture and sale of air conditioners, refrigerators and chemical products. The company operates in two business segments. Air Conditioner & Refrigerator segment manufactures, constructs and sells residential, commercial, marine air conditioners and refrigerator products. Chemical segment is involved in the manufacture and sale of chemical products.

Accounting for 89.6%, the net sales for Air Conditioning including air purifiers was USD 2.25 billion while operating income stood USD 21.03 billion in 2019.

LG Corporation

LG Corp. is a Korean holding company mainly engaged in the provision of information technology (IT) services. The Company operates its business through subsidiaries including LG Electronics Inc, LG Chemical Ltd, LG U. Plus Corp, LG CNS Co Ltd, S&I Corp, LG Management Development Institute, and LG Sports Ltd. LG Electronics Incorporation is principally engaged in manufacturing consumer electronic products. LG Chem. Ltd is mainly engaged in the manufacture of petrochemical products.

The revenue reported from home appliances and air solution segment, which includes sale of refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioning, was USD 15.13 billion in 2019.

COWAY CO. Ltd.

COWAY Co. Ltd. formerly WOONGJIN COWAY CO. LTD. is a company principally engaged in the provision of water purifiers. The company’s products portfolio consists of water purifiers, air purifiers, electronic bidets, non-electronic bidets, water softeners, vacuum cleaners, water dispensers, food waste treatment solutions and sewage treatment solutions for household and business uses. Its water purifiers include free standing, counter top and under sink types. It also involves in the mattress rental and related home care services.

The company sold 1.09 million units of air purifiers in 2019.

MIDEA Group Co. Ltd.

MIDEA Group Co., Ltd. is a China-based company principally engaged in the manufacture and distribution of household electronics. The company’s products are categorized into three types, including consumer appliances, heating ventilating and air conditioning (HAVC) and robot and automation systems.

The company’s products mainly consist of central air conditioning systems, heating and ventilation systems, kitchen appliances, refrigerators, washing machines and other small home appliances, such as water dispensers, water purifying devices, air purifiers, electric kettles & dust collectors.

Midea holds a larger share of pie in the Chinese market. Its residential air-conditioners, in particular, saw a much bigger share in all channels, with an online market share of 30% and an offline market share of nearly 29%. Similarly, commercial air-conditioners market captured 50% domestic market in 2019. Its operating revenue reported from air conditioning including air purifier division was USD 6.38 billion in 2019.

SHARP Corporation

Sharp Corporation is mainly involved in the manufacture and sale of telecommunication equipment, electrical equipment, electronic equipment and electronic components. The company operates through 4 segments.

These segments deals with various electronic products such as mobile phones, electronic dictionaries, calculators, network control units, refrigerators, digital multifunction peripherals, information displays, point of sale (POS) system equipment, electronic registers, sensor modules, proximity sensors, dust sensors, semiconductor lasers, in-vehicle cameras and liquid crystal display (LCD) color televisions, Blue-ray disc recorders, audio and display modules.

Smart Homes segment includes air conditioners and air purifiers and the revenue from this two-product division was USD 6.45 billion in 2019.

Strategic Conclusion

APAC region backed by China market is the largest revenue pocket for air purifier market. Large population in marriage with widening industrial activities and increasing air pollution level, the Chinese market will see double the market size in the next five years.

Other markets such as South Korea and India will also see growing number of households installing air purification system because of the degrading air quality and upgrading income level and purchasing capacity.

In fact, India and Korea will witness the highest market growth rate of 28% and 20% respectively. Overall, the opportunity for purification technology for existing electronics manufacturers and focused new entrants seems promising in the APAC market.

References

Appendix

APAC: Asia-Pacific
CAGR: Cumulative Annual Growth Rate
WHO: World Health Organization