LG, Samsung capitalizing on fast-growing dryer market

By Baek Byung-yeul

LG Electronics' TROMM dryer / Courtesy of LG Electronics

• Published Jul 27, 2018 5:04 PM KST
• Updated Jul 27, 2018 8:29 PM KST

With a dryer being an essential home appliance in Western countries, more and more consumers here are purchasing the machine amid increasingly humid weather conditions.

Korea's dryer market has experienced rapid growth. While the market size was about 100,000 sales in 2016, industry watchers presumed the dryer market will grow to between 1 million and 1.2 million this year.

LG Electronics dominates Korea's dryer market with a market share of over two-thirds.

“Since LG introduced its inverter heat-pump dryer in 2016, the dryer market began to grow explosively. Though experts previously predicted the dryer market will grow to 1 million this year, we expect the figure to grow up to 1.2 million,” an LG Electronics spokesman said.

The spokesman said the growing demand for dryers is because of hot and humid weather and growing public concerns over the impact of air pollution on health.

“Consumers here began valuing the convenience of dryers as they can dry their laundry in this hot and humid weather. Also more consumers purchase dryers because they can dry their laundry inside with the windows closed when fine dust pervades the air,” the spokesman said.

Samsung Electronics, which occupies about 30 percent of the country's dryer market, is trying to build its competitiveness with LG.

Samsung said Wednesday its second-quarter sales of dryers increased about four times year-on-year. The company said this is because of the increasing popularity of its large-sized dryer Grande.

Samsung released the Grande dryer with 14kg capacity last March. It has since been well-received in the market.

“Most consumers purchase a dryer for long-term use. Though the current dryer market is dominated by 9kg-capacity ones, the larger dryer is increasingly becoming popular as it has more drying capacity,” a Samsung spokesman said.

Thanks to growing demand for dryers amid the scorching heat wave, Samsung said it has increased its supply of dryers. The company also operates a tracking system for dryers so consumers can receive their dryers only a day after they purchase the machine.

“Samsung Electronics' Grande dryer could become a hit as we proactively responded to consumer demand,” said Yeen Seok-jin, vice president of Samsung's digital appliances business.

In response to Samsung's larger dryer, LG also rolled out a 14kg-capacity dryer in May. An industry source said the dryer market will keep growing considering more people choose to live in apartments that have no verandas. “Many newly built apartments here don't feature verandas. That means more people dry their clothes inside with the windows closed. Thus, demand for dryers will keep increasing,” the source said.