Chinese cooling appliances are enjoying a robust export surge powered by customized innovation and technological breakthroughs.
Lumpers working for a freezer factory in central China's Henan Province often has to read loading plans before packing the loads, otherwise they might find the cargo - giant freezers in varying customized sizes - oversized.
Located in Henan's Minquan County, a hub with over 140 refrigeration companies, the Henan Combine Electrical Appliances Company boasts a strong capacity for customizing giant freezers for customers around the world.
"We are shipping eight 12-meter-long containers to Ghana, Africa today, including 800-liter freezers and extra-large 3.6-meter-wide freezers," said Jiang Xiaoyun, general manager of the company.
The company's giant freezers have been in popular demand, with the growth rate reaching 324 percent in April and orders in the first half of the year exceeding 90 percent of the total volume in 2024.
"The demand for freezers continues to grow in Africa and other markets. The customers considered 800-liter or 1,000-liter freezers large, so they were very surprised when they saw our 2,500-liter freezers," Jiang said.
In addition to size flexibility, the company has also worked with its local partners to widen the voltage tolerance of freezers to 160-260V to tackle Africa's unstable voltage, and co-developed solutions with local compressor manufacturers to ensure stable performances of freezers in high temperatures.
"By making new plans and new prototypes, we came up with a most cost-effective and reliable solution to meet customers' needs," said Liao Xiaoning, deputy chief engineer of the Henan Asbeila Refrigeration Company.
Meanwhile, the Dongguan JHS Electrical Company in south China's Guangdong Province is selling mobile air conditioners to more than 150 countries and regions in Europe, the Americas and Australia.
By the end of May, the company's mobile air conditioner orders grew by 10 percent year on year.
"Now, we produce about 5,000 air conditioners per day. Our peak daily capacity is over 8,000 air conditioners," said Xie Jingfu, production director of JHS.
To remain at the forefront of the industry, JHS continues to develop new products in its labs.
"We are developing air conditioners for tents, recreational vehicles and trucks to lay the foundation for expanding into more markets in the future," said Jiang Zhiming, deputy director of JHS.
China's exports of cooling appliances posed a significant growth in the first five months of the year, according to the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products.
In the Jan-May period, home air conditioner exports surged by 17.8 percent year on year to 9.45 billion U.S. dollars, fans exports rose by 7.1 percent year on year to 5.65 billion U.S. dollars, and refrigerator exports reached 3.32 billion U.S. dollars, up 5.1 percent year on year.
Chinese cooling appliances crack global markets with tailored innovations
