Europe Drought Drives Demand for Chinese Water-Saving Goods As EU Trade Tensions Grow

After the intense European heatwave beginning in late May fuelled a surge in imports of Chinese air conditioners, drought across the continent is now driving unexpected overseas demand for Chinese-made water-saving hardware.

In Yiwu – a city in eastern China’s Zhejiang province known as the world’s small-goods capital – Liu Junming has spent more than two decades exporting kitchen and bathroom hardware. He said exports of taps and showerheads had risen unusually sharply this summer.

Taps bound for Europe totalled fewer than 2,000 units per month this time last year. That figure has now surged to about 10,000. Liu said he had done little to court European customers: rather, they had sought him out. “Most of our new buyers are from the UK, Spain and Italy. They stumbled across my product posts on social media and placed orders straight away,” Liu said. “Water-saving products were what they were actively seeking.” Beneath the export boom lie Liu’s revamped product offerings. This year, he reworked his product line to introduce low-flow taps for overseas customers. According to him, the fixtures can cut water consumption by 50 per cent over comparable periods of use.

He is not alone in riding this export wave.

A Zhejiang company specialising in garden-watering gear has also seen strong sales growth, state broadcaster China Central Television reported this week. Its equipment can reduce water use by 70 per cent per watering session, and its production capacity is fully booked until 2027 by orders from the UK, France, Germany and Spain. Behind the red-hot demand for Chinese-made water-saving goods lies pervasive drought across Europe.

Germany’s Low Water Information System recorded extremely low water levels at 44 per cent of measuring stations on the Rhine and 78 per cent of those on the Danube by the end of July.

And those arid conditions have persisted into August. The Danube has plummeted to historically low levels this month, according to a report last week by Politico.

Against that backdrop, water-use restrictions have become commonplace across Europe.

France was under water restrictions across nearly 70 per cent of its territory amid record summer heat, France 24 reported on August 11.

In the UK, 10 water companies had announced hosepipe bans prohibiting water use for gardens, washing cars and filling swimming pools, the BBC reported on August 17.

According to Water UK, the country’s water industry trade association, Portugal, Spain and Ireland have also introduced similar water restrictions. “Water-use restrictions and official calls for conservation have made European consumers more receptive to water-saving products. They have also long been environmentally conscious, creating a natural fit between their priorities and my offerings,” Liu said.

This year’s brutal heatwave has created fresh commercial opportunities for Chinese manufacturers.

Shanghai-based Solidware designs and manufactures stainless-steel drinkware. Zhang Bin, its general manager, said the company had long prioritised thermal-insulation performance, but this year’s weather events had opened up new avenues of thought.

“Repeated heatwaves and drought have reshaped local consumer markets. Drinkware that combines cold-retention and environmentally friendly features has become a new consumer trend, so we moved quickly to upgrade our product line,” Zhang said.

Buoyed by its newly introduced products, the company’s export volumes rose more than 20 per cent year on year from January to mid-August.

The export boom in these small-ticket goods comes as Chinese manufacturers closely watch rising trade tensions between China and the European Union.