December Majap Shipments Fall

By Alan Wolf On Jan 30 2006 - 8:00am

Factory shipments of major appliances in December fell 3.2 percent to 7.1 million units year-over-year on weakness in the cooking category, and were flat for the full year.

Wholesale sales of cooking products dropped 10.8 percent last month, due largely to an 18.4 percent decline in microwave oven shipments. Other core categories, including laundry, kitchen cleanup and food preservation, were essentially flat, while longtime laggard room air soared 18.2 percent.

For all of 2005, total white-goods shipments edged up 0.1 percent to 79.3 million units. Sales were lead by kitchen cleanup (ahead 5.1 percent) and laundry (up 4.5 percent), but were weighed down by cooking (off 6.2 percent).