In the sweltering summer, air conditioners are becoming a necessity for more households. Tens of thousands of Chinese air conditioners travel across mountains and seas, bringing cool comfort to consumers worldwide.
Did you know that one in every three air conditioners worldwide is "Made in Guangdong"?
From April to June this year, Europe and the Americas experienced multiple heatwaves. In Europe, drilling holes in older buildings is prohibited, and installing a traditional split air-conditioning system can easily cost over a thousand euros.
Spotting this opportunity, Guangdong home-appliance makers launched portable air conditioners that require no drilling and work plug-and-play. The products were snapped up as soon as they hit the market.
In the first half of the year, China's air-conditioner exports to the EU grew by more than 43 percent year-on-year, with tool-free, mobile air conditioners among the fastest-growing segments.
Take apart a Guangdong portable air conditioner, and you'll find a map of the Pearl River Delta's industry. Compressors from Shunde, Foshan, are used in one in every two air conditioners worldwide; motors, also from Shunde, sell more than 200 million units a year; control boards from Zhongshan have an annual capacity of over ten million units. Within an hour's drive in the delta, you can gather every core component of a portable air conditioner.
This fast-responding industrial cluster lets Guangdong factories compress a routine 30-to-40-day production cycle to the limit when facing urgent overseas orders.
To reach the wider global market, Guangdong's portable air conditioners still face a hurdle—inconsistent energy-efficiency standards across economies. Fortunately, in July this year, a project under the APEC Expert Group on Energy Efficiency and Conservation (EGEEC) proposed by the China National Institute of Standardization was officially approved. Its purpose is to promote the harmonization and alignment of air-conditioner energy-efficiency standards across the APEC region.
Today, a portable air conditioner sets out from the Pearl River Delta and reaches sweltering places far and wide. And when APEC economies sit at the same table, the next stop for Guangdong manufacturing will be all the more expansive.
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Main Creators: Guan Xiruyi, Li Qian, Chen Rongwei, Gong Chunhui
Revisors: Liu Lingzhi, Wei Shen, Huang Qini
