China’s cooling, e-commerce giants see sales surge as Europe heat sizzles

A heatwave sweeping across Europe has triggered a massive surge in sales for Chinese home appliances, with e-commerce giant Alibaba recording triple-digit growth for air conditioners and fans on its overseas platforms. On AliExpress, Alibaba’s international retail site, the June debut of air conditioners in Germany saw warehouse inventory for a 2.35-kilowatt Midea model completely wiped out by Thursday, according to data from Alibaba. The trend was also stark in southern Europe. Fan sales in Spain soared by 94 per cent from June 17 to 23, compared with the same period in May, while Italy recorded a 100 per cent month-on-month jump in cooling appliances and sun-protection apparel in June. The sales frenzy highlights the critical role that Chinese e-commerce platforms are playing as the historic heatwave rolls east across Europe, leaving people scrambling for anything that might cool a room. After baking France, Belgium and the Netherlands, extreme temperatures are now reaching Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, and the human toll is mounting. French authorities on Sunday reported that there had been about 1,000 additional deaths since Wednesday, including a 40 per cent increase in at-home fatalities. The scramble among European consumers was mirrored on Alibaba.com, the e-commerce giant’s business-to-business platform, reflecting urgent procurement by local merchants. In June, air conditioner orders in Spain nearly doubled, year on year, while wholesale orders for fans skyrocketed by 378 per cent in Sweden and 114 per cent in Belgium, according to Alibaba data. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Major Chinese home appliance manufacturers - including Midea, Gree Electric, TCL and Haier - are also reaping direct benefits of the climate-driven demand. Midea highlighted that its flagship PortaSplit air conditioner had been exceptionally popular this year, and that revenue from the company’s air-conditioner sales in western Europe had surged in the first six months by more than 70 per cent, year on year. The company projects that full-year sales for PortaSplit could reach 300,000 units in Europe. Gree reported a more than 40 per cent year-on-year increase in air conditioner sales from January to June in countries including France, Italy and Spain. And Chen Shaolin, president of TCL’s air-conditioning division, recently told Chinese media that some of the company’s air conditioners were “already completely sold out”. Chinese-made air conditioners have already been arriving in record volumes to meet the local demand. In May, China exported US$3.33 million worth of the units to France, US$2.82 million to Germany and US$7.69 million to the Netherlands, representing year-on-year increases of 186.2 per cent, 69.6 per cent and 139.1 per cent, respectively, according to the latest Chinese customs data.