speakers

China manufactured nearly 70 million speakers last year, representing a value close to US$2 billion. A rapidly growing export business has injected vitality into mainland China's decades-old speaker industry. Global Sources research in the first quarter of 2004 and in-depth interviews of major industry players draw a clear picture of capacity building efforts and technical developments designed to cater to overseas buyers' requirements. Output projections provided by the main industry body in China for home theater products, the Shanghai-based China Audio Industries Association, are solidly for growth. According to the CAIA, total speaker output — including home theater or surround sound speakers, computer multimedia speakers, Hi-Fi speakers and subwoofer satellite systems — will grow from 60.5 million units in 2003 to close to 69 million units by year-end 2004. In dollar terms, this translates to US$1.7 billion revenue in 2003, climbing to US$1.87 billion in 2004. China manufacturers of computer speakers are forecast to increase production by at least 12％ over the next year, of which more than two-thirds are reserved for the export market.