(Yicai) Jan. 13 -- TCL Smart Home Appliances, a subsidiary of Chinese home appliance giant TCL Technology Group, plans to invest CNY490 million (USD66.8 million) to establish a new refrigerator production base in Southeast Asia.

TCL Smart Home will build a production base with an annual output capacity of one million to 1.4 million refrigerators in Southeast Asia to better meet the needs of global customers, the Guangdong province-based company announced on Jan. 10.

The construction is expected to be completed in 24 months, TCL Smart Home added, without revealing any further details about the project.

Building a production base overseas can increase the company’s output capacity, promote its global market expansion, enhance its market share, and increase the proportion of high-end frost-free refrigerators in its portfolio to optimize its product structure, TCL Smart Home noted.

TCL Smart Home mainly manufactures household refrigerators, freezers, and washing machines. Overseas sales made up 74 percent of its total revenue in the first half of last year.

The refrigerator and freezer business accounted for 85 percent of TCL Smart Home’s total revenue in the six months ended June 30, 64 percent of which came from the sale of mid-to-high-end frost-free products. The company’s sales of fridges and freezers soared 23 percent to 8.34 million units from a year earlier, and sales of washing machines jumped 47 percent to 1.66 million units.

Shares of TCL Smart Home [SHE: 002668] fell 2.6 percent to CNY12.62 (USD1.72) in Shenzhen today.

Editor: Futura Costaglione