KARACHI: Easing of lockdown and rising heatwave have caused a sharp rise in production of home appliances with refrigerators hitting a 32-month high in April, followed by 19-month high in air conditioners and 22-month in deep freezers.

Production of refrigerators during April soared to 131,953 units from 6,996 units in April 2020 while in March the production was 119,535 units, showed Large-Scale Manufacturing (LSM) data.

Production of air-conditioners soared to 62,953 units in April as compared to 5,246 units in April 2020 while in March the production stood at 35,418 units, showing a jump of 78pc MoM.

Deep freezers sales also saw a strong rebound, rising to 11,732 units in April 2021 from 1,048 units in April 2020 while March 2021 production stood at 7,236 units.

According to a financial analyst at a brokerage house, demand for electrical goods is rising after tapering off the Covid-19 led lockdown which is much evident from LSM figures of April. Production of other power sector electrical goods such as electric transformers and meters production also witnessed strong rebound in April.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2021