The 27 EU countries import up to one million electric blankets from China in a single month. Data decryption for manufacturers, sellers and customs——
Why Chinese heaters are popular in Europe
For Europe, the coming harsh winter may not be easy.
Under the circumstance of limited natural gas supply and skyrocketing prices, how can we survive the winter safely?
More and more Europeans are turning to Made in China for answers.
Recently, Rainbow Group has quietly become popular due to the concept of "electric blanket".
Not only is this old-fashioned small home appliance company ushered in a boom in production and sales, but my country's exports of air conditioners, electric water heaters, electric heaters and other categories to Europe also show a trend of contrarian growth.
Data from the General Administration of Customs shows that in July this year alone, 27 EU countries imported 1.29 million Chinese electric blankets, an increase of nearly 150% month-on-month.
For heaters exported to the EU, the sales season has also been extended by about a month.
Many importers placed additional orders for heaters, which brought a wave of "replenishment orders".
Why are Chinese heating equipment popular in Europe?
What does the reason tell us?
The reporter interviewed many heater production and sales enterprises in Cixi and Yiwu, Zhejiang.
Under the energy crisis, European consumers stocked up to welcome the cold winter, driving the export of Chinese heating "artifacts" such as electric heaters, baby warmers, and electric blankets.
Cixi City, Zhejiang Province is one of the heater production bases in my country, and its export volume accounts for 30% of the country.
Different from the situation where the peak production season of electric heaters ended in mid-September of previous years, related companies have been busy making orders this year to cope with the "replenishment tide" of customers in Europe and other places.
On the afternoon of September 22, when the reporter got on the phone, Xu Songlie, general manager of Cixi Fuyun Electric Co., Ltd., was busy making arrangements for a new round of electric heater orders.
Founded in 2011, Fuyun Electrical Appliances is mainly engaged in small electric heaters, mainly European and American customers. Currently, among similar products in Cixi City, the export volume to Europe ranks first.
"After more than 10 years of development, we have become competitive in the sub-categories of electric heaters, and the European market accounts for 70% to 80%." Xu Songlie introduced that last year's export of heaters was about 160 million yuan, and this year is expected to exceed 160 million yuan. 200 million yuan, of which new orders from customers exceeded 20 million yuan.
Affected by the international environment, European customers' demand for electric heaters has increased significantly. This year's turnover of Fuyun Electric has increased by nearly 20% compared with the same period last year, reaching 130 million yuan.
Xu Songlie introduced that this year's replenishment of orders is particularly obvious, with an increase of more than 100,000 orders, and customers are mainly concentrated in European countries.
At its peak, the factory employed more than 400 workers, and now more than 350 workers have been put into production.
In the fiercely competitive international market, what are the advantages of Chinese electric heaters?
According to Xu Songlie, electric heater products have their own particularities, and it is necessary to ensure the safety and stability of plastic and other accessories while rapidly heating up to avoid fires and other situations. Chinese products have advantages in this regard, coupled with relatively affordable prices, Therefore, it is widely welcomed by European customers.
According to Cen Na, Chief of the First Inspection Section of Cixi Customs, which belongs to Ningbo Customs, from January to August this year, Cixi heaters exported 3.35 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.3%, of which 1.53 billion yuan was exported to the EU, a year-on-year increase of 55.2%. In comparison, the sales season for heaters exported to the EU is expected to be extended by about a month.
The heating "artifact" popular among European consumers is not just electric heaters.
In the "world supermarket" Yiwu Small Commodity City, merchants dealing with heating products such as hot water bottles also felt the unusualness of this year's orders.
"This year's orders in Europe are particularly hot. From the perspective of time, orders have been placed in March and the transaction rate is very high. From the perspective of quantity, the order volume of the largest customer in previous years was about 900,000 pieces, while this year's largest customer placed orders directly 2 million pieces." Luo Lanxian, a merchant who has been in the hot water bottle business for many years in Yiwu Small Commodity City, told reporters that the customer's order had been sent before the end of July, but now with the cold weather, customers in Europe and other places have added another batch of orders. The sales volume of the product has doubled year-on-year this year.
For merchants operating similar products in Yiwu, the number of orders has basically increased significantly.
"In order to get the heating products as soon as possible and put them on the market, customers who return orders will choose the 'Yi-Xin-Ou' train with faster timeliness." Luo Lanxian said that under the conditions of the epidemic, this mode of transportation has a large number, fast speed, and formalities. Convenient and popular with European customers.
It is understood that Yiwu is actively coordinating the allocation of railways to increase transport capacity, ensuring the smooth flow of the "Yi-Xin-Europe" China-Europe freight train and the sea-rail combined transport channel, so as to prepare for more business volume.
As of September 7, a total of 4,500 trains have been operated on the Yixin Ou train, and the shipment volume has exceeded 368,000 TEUs.
Not only that, but the energy storage equipment has also been accidentally "fired".
"For families using air conditioners, refrigerators, and various types of lighting, it is not a problem for the energy storage power supply to last for a month." Lao Pei, who operates new energy power generation and energy storage equipment in the second district of Yiwu International Trade City, told reporters that European customers Recently, it has increased, and recently reached a preliminary intention of nearly one million yuan with a businessman from Italy. "A customer in Germany recently placed an order for nearly 3 million yuan of products, and the order for energy storage power supply is increasing sharply. ."
Data from the China Household Electrical Appliances Association shows that in the context of the decline in the export value of most home appliances to Europe in 2022, air conditioners, electric water heaters, electric heaters, electric blankets, hair dryers and other categories have grown against the trend, and the cumulative exports from January to July The amount was 1.99 billion US dollars, 130 million US dollars, 490 million US dollars, 33.4 million US dollars, and 160 million US dollars, of which electric blankets reached a growth rate of 97%.
In Xu Songlie's view, the reason why Chinese electric heaters, electric blankets and other heating products are so popular among European customers is that on the one hand, because of the special circumstances this year, the European energy crisis has made natural gas prices soar. For the coming winter, ordinary consumers will not be allowed to No preparations are made in advance; on the other hand, due to the severe inflation in Europe, the overall purchasing power of consumers has declined, while China's heating products are more cost-effective and guaranteed in terms of safety and durability.
From electric blankets to bicycles, made in China has become the "stabilizer" of the global supply chain
Looking at the international market in recent years, whenever there is a "lack of cores" and "less cabinets", Made in China can always step forward and shoulder the heavy responsibility of stabilizing the chain.
In 2020, the overseas new crown epidemic continued to spread, and people in Europe and the United States and other countries who were quarantined at home had a strong willingness to stock up on refrigerators.
According to customs data, a total of 69.54 million refrigerators were exported in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 35.6%.
Among them, in December, 6.48 million refrigerators were exported, a year-on-year increase of 58.7%.
In 2021, as consumers pay more and more attention to safety and health, the demand for bicycles in the international market will soar.
China's exports of bicycles and spare parts ushered in a significant growth, and showed a high-end trend.
Data show that in 2021, bicycle exports will be 69.232 million, a year-on-year increase of 14.8%; the export value will be 5.107 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 40.2%.
Among them, the "competitive bicycles" and "mountain bicycles" representing high-end sports and high added value have grown significantly.
In addition to refrigerators, bicycles and other products, China's performance in high-tech products is also very eye-catching.
According to the Ministry of Commerce, in the first half of this year, exports of high-tech and high value-added products grew rapidly, with exports of solar cells, lithium batteries and integrated circuits increasing by 95.4%, 75.3% and 16.4% respectively.
A complete industrial system is our foundation.
According to the statistical classification of the national economy, my country's manufacturing industry has 31 major categories, 179 medium categories and 609 small categories. It is the manufacturing industry with the most complete industrial categories and the most complete industrial system in the world.
Today, China has a complete range of industries and strong supporting capabilities. The output of more than 220 major industrial products leads the world all year round.
In the past ten years, the added value of my country's manufacturing industry has increased from 16.98 trillion yuan in 2012 to 31.4 trillion yuan in 2021, and its global share has increased from 22.5% to nearly 30%, continuing to maintain its status as the world's largest manufacturing power.
The security and stability of the industrial chain and supply chain are the foundation for building a new development pattern, and it is not possible to "drop the chain" at a critical moment. This is an important feature that must be possessed by the economy of a large country.
It is worth mentioning that thanks to the major achievements in coordinating epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, China's industrial and supply chains are safe and stable, and their resilience has been further improved.
It is understood that through the joint efforts of various departments, localities and relevant parties, my country's manufacturing industry chain has maintained a safe and stable operation as a whole. In the first half of the year, the added value of the manufacturing industry increased by 2.8% year-on-year. The resilience of the supply chain has been further improved.
Europe's energy crisis warns of the need to improve the ability of energy supply to resist risks
Winter is approaching, and Europe is facing a new round of energy crisis.
Gazprom said on September 2 that due to the discovery of multiple equipment failures, the "North Stream-1" will completely stop gas transmission until the fault is eliminated.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that the stoppage of Nord Stream-1 gas transmission was entirely caused by sanctions from the European Union and other Western countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 16 that if the EU wants to get more natural gas, sanctions should be lifted and the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline should be allowed.
In the past year, the global energy market has become more volatile, with two rounds of energy crises breaking out, and Europe is in the "eye of the storm".
The first round of energy crisis that will break out in the winter of 2021 is mainly due to the imbalance of energy supply and demand.
In late February 2022, the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis and the imposition of comprehensive sanctions against Russia by the United States and the West triggered the second round of the global energy crisis.
"Last year, more than 50% of Europe's natural gas supply came from Russia. After Russia's supply reduction during this period, this proportion has now dropped to 10%. With such a large gap, Europe must now solve the problem of how to spend the winter." Wang Yongzhong, director and researcher of the International Commodities Research Office of the Institute of World Economics and Politics, believes that Europe wants to import a large amount of LNG from the United States, Australia, Qatar, Algeria and other countries to partially replace Russian pipeline gas, which is difficult to achieve in the short term.
Wang Yongzhong further explained that, unlike the oil market with a high degree of globalization, the natural gas market has obvious regional characteristics, and its transportation and delivery are severely restricted by infrastructure such as pipelines and terminals.
Europe is highly dependent on Russian pipeline natural gas.
In 2021, Europe will import 167 billion cubic meters of pipeline gas from Russia, accounting for 90% of its natural gas imports from Russia, and 17.4 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas, accounting for 10% of its imports.
"The impact of the 'Beixi-1' supply cut off is deadly."
"Heating and power generation are the two main uses of natural gas in Europe." Wang Yongzhong said that in order to cope with the crisis of sharply reduced natural gas supply, Europe can only restart some coal-fired power plants, delay the withdrawal of nuclear power, use biomass fuels such as firewood, and reduce production and life. energy consumption, etc.
"It's not difficult to understand why our country's electric blankets and heaters are selling well in Europe."
"Russia and Europe are highly dependent on each other in the energy field, and Europe has the highest dependence on Russian natural gas." Talking about the source of the European energy crisis, Wang Yongzhong said that Russia is rich in energy reserves and Europe is scarce in energy endowments. Europe is Russia's main energy export market. Russia is the most important source of energy imports in Europe, and the two have long been in a mutually beneficial relationship.
In addition, Europe is more aggressive on energy issues. For example, it has previously aggressively removed coal power, shut down nuclear power, blindly relied on natural gas for power generation, and invested heavily in renewable energy, which also makes its ability to resist risks insufficient.
Data shows that Russia has the world's largest natural gas reserves, is the world's second largest natural gas producer and the largest natural gas exporter.
Fossil energy consumption in Europe accounts for about 60% of the total energy consumption, and most of it depends on imports.
At the same time, the Russian national economy is also highly dependent on the energy industry.
Oil and gas revenues in 2021 account for 45% of the Russian Federation’s budget, with 76% of the country’s gas, 53% oil and 35% coal exports going to Europe.
In recent years, the US and Western sanctions against Russia in the energy sector have mainly adopted measures such as prohibiting or reducing imports, prohibiting exports of equipment and technologies, restricting or prohibiting financial services, divesting or prohibiting new investments, and sanctioning ports and shipping companies, resulting in serious obstacles to Russia’s oil and gas exports. .
As a result, on the one hand, there is a large surplus of energy supply in Russia, and on the other hand, there is a serious shortage of energy supply in European countries, which leads to the coexistence of a rapid rise in international energy benchmark prices and a large discount in Russian energy prices.
Keep the bottom line of energy security and focus on high-quality development
"Europe has introduced a series of policies to avoid repeating the same mistakes, trying to get rid of the dilemma faced by energy supply." Luo Zuoxian, director of the research office of Sinopec Economic and Technological Research Institute, noted that Europe has recently increased its efforts to extract gas from the world.
In order to reduce energy dependence on Russia, in May 2022 the European Commission issued the "Energy Independence Plan: Providing Europe with Affordable, Safe and Sustainable Energy".
"Although this document is titled as an independent plan, it actually makes getting rid of Gazprom and enhancing the ability to diversify gas supply as one of the recent priorities."
According to the plan, the EU will continue to expand its imported gas sources and increase its natural gas storage capacity.
Within two months after the document was issued, the EU signed a memorandum of understanding on natural gas imports with Egypt, Israel, Norway, Azerbaijan and other countries. It is expected that by 2027, the natural gas import capacity of the European Southern Gas Corridor will double, and tens of billions of cubic meters will be transported to Europe every year. natural gas.
If the upgrade of the energy structure is the "icing on the cake", the stable energy supply is the "help in the snow".
In Luozo County's view, when the policy goals of "helping in the snow" and "icing on the cake" conflict, the former should be the first choice because it involves basic survival issues.
Take the previous energy crisis as an example.
In 2021, affected by extreme weather, the supply of new energy in Europe, especially wind power, will drop sharply, and the demand for gas and electricity will increase greatly, resulting in the early exhaustion of natural gas in gas storage.
In order to make up for the lack of gas storage capacity, European countries have increased their purchases of natural gas in summer, and the phenomenon of "off-season is not weak" has occurred, which finally triggered an energy crisis and spread to the world.
Looking at my country, "rich coal, lean oil and little gas" are the basic characteristics of our energy endowment, of which the external dependence of oil, natural gas and coal is about 73%, 43% and 10% respectively.
At present, international fossil energy prices fluctuate at a high level, increasing China's energy import costs.
In response to the current complex external energy environment, Wang Yongzhong believes that it is necessary to attach great importance to the security of energy supply, give full play to the guarantee function of coal, increase the production of high-quality coal, reduce the dependence on external energy, and continue to encourage Chinese-funded enterprises to invest in overseas upstream oil and gas assets. ; Maintain the stability of the Sino-Russian energy trade scale and pay attention to potential investment opportunities in Russian oil and gas assets.
The world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. The international order is undergoing a new round of major changes and adjustments. The instability and uncertainty faced by the global economy are becoming more prominent. The domestic economy is changing its development mode, optimizing its economic structure, and transforming its growth. The task of power is more urgent.
At any time, concentrating on our own affairs is the key to adapting to situations, nurturing new opportunities, and opening new ones.
Our reporter Guan Xiaopu Xue Peng