Makers of high-end goods have mixed feelings about sales in H2

Customers walk past the Cartier boutique at China World Mall in Beijing. The growth in China's luxury market revenues will stabilize to an expected 7 percent in 2013. [Photo / Provided to China Daily]

Makers of luxury brands, which have been pinning their hopes in China's market during the global economic recession, have mixed feelings about the market in the second half of 2013.

The good news is that China's luxury market will recover gradually in the second half of the year. However, the high-speed growth enjoyed over recent years will never return.

The growth in China's luxury market revenues will stabilize to an expected 7 percent in 2013, while worldwide revenues will increase by an anticipated 4 to 5 percent, said Bain & Co, a US consultancy, in its spring updated luxury goods worldwide market study.

Growth in the sector in China was 30 percent in 2011 and dropped to 7 percent in 2012, according to the firm.

"China's market will be better in the second half of the year than in the first half because some occasions, such as Mid-autumn Festival, National Day and New Year's Day, will push up sales of luxury items," said Zhou Ting, director of the Fortune Character Research Center.

Chinese confidence in luxury goods, which was restrained by the government's anti-corruption policies from the end of 2012, will return in the second half year.

The people's wait-and-see attitude on whether to buy luxury items is fading away in cities except Beijing, Zhou said.

"The demand for luxury goods in smaller cities is developing much faster than in the big cities, where the market is becoming saturated," she said.

Some Chinese businessmen are also pinning their hopes on the rising number of middle-class people in China, many of whom will buy luxury items for themselves.

Shangpin.com, one of the main online luxury retailers in China, will make a profit this September and October, said Zhao Shicheng, chief executive officer of the online retailer. The website did not make a profit in 2012.

"Our target is that group of people setting out to enjoy themselves and buying luxury fashion items as part of that," said Zhao.

Different luxury items have performed differently in the China market this year.

Sparkle Roll Group Ltd, a Hong Kong-based luxury distributor, revealed its sales of ultra-luxury automobiles and super deluxe watches fell sharply in the financial year that ended on March 31, 2013.