As the summer season has started to settle and the marketing campaigns from various consumer durable majors have hit the market, companies like LG, Samsung and Carrier have hiked the prices of air conditioners because of the recent increase in steel prices and other input costs.

In fact, Samsung has increased its AC prices by 4-5%, LG, which has more than 30% of the market share, has increased prices by 6-8% making the purchase costlier for the end-consumer. Notably, as the industry has come out from the slump, it is expecting to make the current season a memorable one this time.

While Samsung is expecting to double its sales volume as it plans to sell 10 lakh units this year as compared to 5 lakh last year even the other companies are eying this season with a bullish target as economic conditions are better and consumers are spending more.

Ajay Bajaj, business group head, AC division at LG explained the fact that the hike in the price of ACs is coming in picture because of the excise duty hikes coupled with the rise in the input costs.