Europe's AC Panic: Chinese Units Sell Out at €2,679

Why Germans Don't Have Air Conditioning

Europe can afford almost anything. Except, it turns out, an air conditioner.

Air conditioning penetration in German households has long hovered between just 3% and 6%, with the European average sitting below 20%. Historic buildings are under strict protection, meaning many property owners simply cannot drill through exterior walls to install traditional split-unit systems.

Installation costs alone often exceed €1,000 (roughly HK$8,700), frequently surpassing the price of the unit itself. In the past, European summers stayed mild enough that electric fans and thick, heat-absorbing walls sufficed. Air conditioning was never considered essential.

Europe's historic buildings are under strict protection, leaving many property owners unable to drill into exterior walls to install traditional split-unit air conditioners.

This year, however, proved entirely different. In late June, temperatures across multiple German regions surged past 37°C. Moeckern-Drewitz in the east recorded 41.5°C, shattering Germany's all-time meteorological heat record.

Southwestern France spiked to 44.3°C, while parts of Spain approached 45°C. The UK Met Office issued only its second-ever "red extreme heat warning" in history, forcing over 1,000 schools to close. Spanish official statistics revealed that between June 21 and 24 alone, just four days, the country recorded more than 212 excess deaths directly linked to the heat.

Europeans finally grasped a hard truth. This wasn't a matter of "enduring a few tough days." It was the new annual normal under climate crisis. Overnight, air conditioning shifted from a discretionary purchase to a matter of survival.

Temperatures across Europe approached or exceeded 45°C, with extreme heat turning air conditioning into an overnight necessity for survival.

In the past, European summers stayed mild enough that residents relied on outdoor shade and natural cooling to get through.

Chinese Air Conditioners Hit Europe's Exact Pain Point

At precisely this moment, Chinese appliance giant Midea had already developed a product tailored for the European market. It's called the "PortaSplit," a portable split-unit air conditioner. In hindsight, its design seems almost eerily suited to this very heatwave.

The unit requires no wall drilling. The outdoor component simply sits on a windowsill or balcony, venting hot air through a specially designed sealing kit. Users can install it themselves without hiring technicians or damaging any building structure.

Priced at roughly €700 to €800 (about HK$6,100 to 6,960), it undercuts the total cost of a traditional air conditioner plus installation by a wide margin. It also features heat pump technology, doubling as a heater in winter for a genuine year-round solution. One user who tested the unit for over 200 hours reported electricity costs under €30, underscoring its impressive energy efficiency.

Portable split-unit air conditioners require no wall drilling. Users can complete installation themselves using a specially designed sealing kit.

The three obstacles that have long plagued Europeans are the inability to drill walls, unaffordable installation, and heritage building restrictions. A single product design solved all three. This wasn't coincidence. It was the product of sharp market insight paired with genuine R&D capability.

Panic Buying Spirals Out of Control

The inevitable result was a supply shortage. By late June, stock at major German home-improvement chains had run dry across the board. On e-commerce platforms like Amazon, resale prices surged to nearly three times the official retail price. One unit sold for €2,679 (about HK$23,000), and buyers still snapped it up.

Austrian internet user Denis Yurchak, unable to sleep through a week of relentless heat, built his own AI-powered tracking program to monitor stock of this Chinese air conditioner across Europe around the clock. He eventually got an alert that one last unit remained in Linz, roughly 200 kilometres from his home. He drove through the night to secure it. His story quickly went viral online, striking a chord with countless users facing the same struggle.

The chaos also created business opportunities. Adrian Kubel, a programmer in Cologne, built a website called braucheklima.de (German for "I need air conditioning") within just a few days. The site provides a real-time stock map covering over a thousand stores across Germany. Users simply enter their postal code to check nearby availability.

For a one-time fee of about €2.69 (roughly HK$23), users can subscribe to three months of restock alerts, receiving an email notification the moment inventory appears. As of late June, the vast majority of stores on the site's map remained marked red for "sold out."

On a website offering a real-time stock map of over a thousand stores across Germany, most regions remain marked red, indicating sold-out status.

The numbers confirm the scale of this buying frenzy. Midea Group reported that since the heatwave began in late May, sales on German e-commerce platforms rose roughly 37% year-on-year. Shipment volumes to Spain and France surged 108% year-on-year.

Customs data show that air conditioner export values from China to France, the Netherlands, and Belgium all doubled year-on-year in the first five months of this year. Exports of portable units climbed more than 70% year-on-year. Chinese manufacturing is filling Europe's massive domestic supply gap with real, measurable volume.

China's air conditioner exports to multiple European countries have surged, with production lines running at full capacity to fill Europe's massive domestic supply gap.

Tariff Barriers Can't Cool Things Down

Some European politicians were still debating how to impose tariffs on Chinese appliances. Meanwhile their own citizens were already queuing outside supermarkets, paying inflated prices online, and driving hundreds of kilometers overnight, all just to secure a Chinese-made air conditioner.

The heatwave even ignited political debate in France. Far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen publicly declared that if she came to power, her top priority would be ensuring hospitals, care homes, and schools are fully equipped with air conditioning. The political correctness once surrounding "environmental priorities" and "energy conservation" quietly collapsed in the face of days of 40-degree heat.

Many European netizens have taken to social media to recommend this Chinese air conditioner, praising it as offering "far better value than any European domestic brand." One user put it bluntly. "I hope the EU doesn't restrict imports for political reasons. Ordinary citizens will be the only ones who suffer."

The market never lies. As Europeans scrambled to buy Chinese-made products just to survive, they delivered the most direct rebuttal yet to "decoupling" rhetoric. It isn't China begging Europe to buy. It's Europe begging China to sell. The European politicians pushing "de-Sinicization" likely never expected this day to arrive quite so soon, or quite so hot.

Mao Paishou

** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **

Bloomberg reported on October 14 local time that the EU is negotiating with China. Brussels hopes Beijing will lift sanctions on the small German company Sindlhauser Materials GmbH. That small firm supplies the Dutch ASML, the world's most important chip equipment manufacturer. The sanctions now threaten its survival.

EU seeks China deal to free ASML supplier Sindlhauser.　

The Deal on the Table

Bloomberg cited people in the know as saying the EU will remove trade restrictions on an unnamed Chinese company in exchange. That company is accused of assisting Russia in launching war against Ukraine.

In July this year, China imposed sanctions on Sindlhauser and 13 other European companies. The move retaliated for the EU's 21st round of sanctions against Russia. Sindlhauser is a small German company specializing in precision manufacturing and advanced coating technology for semiconductors and other industries.

In that round of sanctions, the EU listed several Chinese entities as sanctions targets. The EU said they were suspected of providing Russia with key components that could be used to manufacture weapons. Companies placed on the relevant EU and Chinese lists are subject to export controls.

People familiar with the matter said Sindlhauser relies on Chinese supplies of rare earths and critical minerals. If China's sanctions continue, the company will face the risk of bankruptcy within the coming months. It was also said this German company is part of ASML's supply chain.

ASML, Dutch semiconductor equipment giant.

Berlin and Brussels Race to Rescue Sindlhauser

Bloomberg sees a message in China's choice of target. Imposing controls on such an obscure company, the report argues, shows China knows exactly where Europe's economic bottlenecks sit.

An EU official says the European Union has begun discussions with China on whether each side would remove the entities from its own list. That means China's export control framework on one side, and the entities the EU has listed under its own regulations on the other.

The official added that any removal decision on the EU side would require unanimous support from all member states.

The trouble began in July when China's Ministry of Commerce put Sindlhauser on its export control list, and the company's first reaction was panic.

For weeks after the announcement, Sindlhauser had no clear view of whether, or how, it could keep operating.

Help came quickly. According to the people who knows what’s happening, the German government and the Bavarian state government, where Sindlhauser is headquartered, stepped in immediately to help the company find alternative suppliers wherever possible.

The two governments also explored other workarounds, such as recycling existing materials and seeking whatever financial support was available.

Brussels was watching too. Some officials there understood the company's plight and raised the matter with the Chinese side for several weeks.

Sindlhauser's rare earth supply nearly all Chinese.

A Policy Dilemma, an Intelligence Blind Spot

Sindlhauser sits squarely inside China's rare earth grip. According to the report, the company relies almost entirely on Chinese rare earths, and its placement on the export control list dealt a direct blow to its supply chain.

The company had previously taken almost no measures to diversify its supply sources or reduce its dependence on Chinese raw materials.

Some officials see a problem with the rescue. Removing companies such as Sindlhauser from the sanctions list, they worry, could once again weaken the urgency for these European companies to build supply chain networks outside China.

That leaves the German government and EU officials in a bind. Deciding through negotiations which companies go onto or come off trade restriction lists could set a bad precedent for other companies also hoping for sanctions exemptions. It would also mean the EU must make concessions on the question of certain Chinese entities.

But officials involved in handling the matter see a deeper problem. The situation behind the case, they argue, is more concerning, though not surprising.

The explanation: over the past year and a half, China has been collecting information on global supply chains as much as it possibly can. That is how China identified a small company in Bavaria as a supplier to the world's most important chip equipment manufacturer.

Beijing's map of global supply chains runs remarkably deep. The report credits that insight to the licensing system China has built for exports of critical minerals and rare earths.

The system requires foreign companies to submit detailed information, including their customers, how and where Chinese raw materials are used, and photos of the final products.

Germany shows the cost. Some companies have been leaking business secrets to China, while the German government remained completely unaware and unable to obtain the same or even similar information.

More important, the German government still has not formulated any strategy to address its shortcomings in economic intelligence.

A Possible Template, and China's Stated Position

The talks went straight to the top. According to the report, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič visited Beijing last week and met with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao. The two sides discussed lifting restrictions on Sindlhauser in exchange for relief for a Chinese company.

EU trade chief Šefčovič met Wang Wentao in Beijing.

The backdrop is stark. The EU is hunting for a fix to a massive trade deficit that exceeds $1 billion every single day.

People familiar with the matter say the two sides agreed in Beijing to strengthen information sharing and to give each other advance notice of export restriction measures.

The "one-for-one" arrangement around Sindlhauser, in which each side takes the other's company off its restriction list, could become a template for similar moves in the future. The EU is expected to act first. Only then would China lift its restrictions on the German company.

China's message has stayed consistent. The Chinese side has repeatedly stressed that China holds an objective and impartial position on the Ukraine crisis, stays committed to promoting peace talks, and plays a constructive role in advancing a political resolution of the crisis.

The opposition is just as firm. China firmly rejects the EU's blame-shifting, smears and denigration over the Ukraine crisis. It equally and firmly opposes the EU's unjustified listing and sanctions against Chinese companies and citizens.