GUANGZHOU | Xinhua | For Austrian resident Denis Yurchak, the search for an air conditioner to survive this year’s scorching summer felt like embarking on an adventure. Since late June, a relentless heatwave has grilled…
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GUANGZHOU | Xinhua | For Austrian resident Denis Yurchak, the search for an air conditioner to survive this year’s scorching summer felt like embarking on an adventure.
Since late June, a relentless heatwave has grilled Europe, shattering numerous temperature records. After spending two days looking for a portable air conditioner in the country, Yurchak set his eyes on a model offered by Chinese home appliance giant Midea.
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“It was sold out almost everywhere in the EU,” he posted on social media. Desperate and unable to sleep due to the heat, he even contacted a distributor in Hungary, where the unit was marked as in stock, and mentally prepared for a cross-border trip.
He then had a stroke of luck: his AI agent alerted him that a single unit remained in Linz, Austria, roughly 200 kilometers from his residence. He immediately reserved it, drove there the next morning, and finally secured the much-needed air conditioner. “I was happy like a child — this was the only Midea PortaSplit left in the whole country, and it was mine!” he wrote.
“Getting the air conditioner amidst a total heat panic and crisis turned into a real adventure, and also it’s finally cool in my apartment,” he added.
Yurchak’s experience mirrors that of many Europeans scrambling to buy cooling equipment from Chinese manufacturers. On social media, stories abound of buyers driving hundreds of kilometers only to find prices hiked by 100 euros (about 114 U.S. dollars). The demand is so intense that some have developed websites specifically to track real-time store inventories.
Data from the International Energy Agency showed that Europe is warming at twice the global average rate, but only 20 percent of European households have air conditioning. Air conditioners, once seen as nonessential in Europe, are becoming a “survival necessity.”
On Joybuy, JD.com’s European online retail brand, air-conditioner sales surged nearly 40 times during the June 19-25 heatwave compared with the first week of June. According to market research firm Euromonitor International, Chinese manufacturers Haier, Gree and Midea are projected to account for a combined 32 percent of the European retail market by sales volume.
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