Shipments of AC units from China to the US plunged 23% over the same comparative time, as a tariff war between the world’s two biggest economies disrupted trade flows.
This year Europe has suffered through successive heat waves, while the UK’s Met Office has said this summer was “almost certainly” Britain’s hottest on record. Many parts of Europe that once saw air conditioning as an American excess or only a Mediterranean necessity are beginning to embrace the idea of on-demand cooling for homes and businesses amid a new climate reality on the world’s fastest warming continent. Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research estimates air conditioning is currently only found in about 20% of homes across the European Union, but that figure may rise to around 25% by 2030.
“The [Chinese AC] demand surge is mainly driven by countries such as Serbia, Italy, Spain,” said Long Fei, an analyst with ChinaIOL, a Beijing-based researcher. “Europe will remain a market with great potential in the coming years.”
Chinese manufacturers aren’t the only ones sensing opportunity for AC sales in Europe. David Bioche, European Union marketing and product management director for Japanese manufacturer Hitachi, said the market is about to get more competitive.
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“We see a lot of investment going to Europe,” he said. And the latest US moves around tariffs “will reinforce this strategy to go to Europe.”
Familiar appliance brands in Europe like Morphy Richards, whose products are manufactured in China, are also bullish on Europe’s future market potential.
“Europe offers a large market with high purchasing power and more predictable, sustained demand for small appliances—particularly portable, installation-free ACs,” said Martin Guo, head of Morphy Richards international department, citing “frequent extreme weather” as one of the contributors to the steady growth potential of the European AC market.
“We believe Europe has the potential to offset instability in the US market in the mid-to-long term and may even become a new growth engine for Morphy Richards in this emerging segment,” he said.
