Home appliance exports from China surge amid World Cup
Companies’ global rise behind rocketing orders
The Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup is driving up China’s home appliance exports to the Middle East, with color TVs, air conditioners and projectors among the most popular goods, and Middle Eastern and African markets along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) route are becoming hot targets for Chinese appliance firms, industry data showed.
In the first 10 months of 2022, China’s exports of home appliances to the League of Arab States, including Qatar, rose by 11.21 percent on a yearly basis, while exports of color TVs alone increased by 29 percent year-on-year, according to data from the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products.
According to AliExpress, the global retail online marketplace under Alibaba Group, sales of Chinese projectors on the platform in the Middle East in October rose 120 percent year-on-year.
Liang Zhenpeng, a senior industry analyst, attributed the rapid sales growth in the Middle East to local residents’ demand for watching the World Cup but more importantly, the increasingly high-end brand image of Chinese home appliance makers on the back of their technological innovation and improved after-sales services.
In addition to 2,500 Midea air conditioners, which were installed at 100 security check centers of the World Cup competition venues, electrical appliance manufacturing giant Midea Group has customized anti-corrosion multi-split units, cabinet units and roof units for the World Cup, the company said.
TCL said that since entering the Middle Eastern and African markets in 2004, its business now covers the six Gulf countries in the region, and it has gained a roughly 26-percent market share in Qatar, 10 percent in Saudi Arabia and about 9 percent in the UAE.
Targeting the Middle Eastern and African markets, Chinese companies are rushing to establish factories in countries such as Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria, contributing to local economic and social development.
Chinese home appliance brands’ overall advantage in research and development, industrial chains and manufacturing means stronger international competitiveness, Liang said.