Room AC firms set to have a moment in the sun?

India's room AC industry is poised for a strong Q1FY27 with 40% volume growth, the best-performing category within white goods, driven by heatwaves and a delayed south-west monsoon due to El Niño conditions. Voltas reported AC sales surpassing 1 million units for FY27 in record time against nearly 2.25 million units in FY26. However, margin pressure persists as BEE norm revisions and commodity cost inflation pushed production costs up by around 13%, with industry price hikes of 5-12% seen as insufficient to fully offset margin erosion.