A French man took a business trip to Shanghai and shipped a large item upon his return—a China-made air conditioner. He intended to take it back to Europe to help his families withstand the scorching heat. This heartwarming story went viral across the internet, yet behind it lies a genuine market signal. In Europe, during this sweltering summer, how urgent is the demand for cooling equipment?

In the summer of 2026, Europe experienced historic and persistent heatwaves, with multiple countries breaking temperature records spanning a century. Cooling home appliances transformed from “optional items” into “essential necessities.” Chinese split-type air conditioners, portable fans, and other products quickly gained popularity in the European market, thanks to their superior quality and cost-performance ratio.

Many Chinese appliance factories are brightly lit as millions of finished units await shipment to the other side of the ocean. COSCO SHIPPING has utilized its end-to-end and refined cross-border logistics services to build this “cooling corridor” spanning Asia and Europe. Chinese air conditioners, traveling via large ships and railways, have entered thousands of households, allowing a refreshing “cool” breeze to blow across the European continent.

Rooted at the Source of Industry, Opening Up the “First Mile” for Domestic Products Going Global

Hefei, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, and Qingdao are core domestic industrial clusters for home appliances. COSCO SHIPPING has positioned its supply chain services at the forefront, deeply embedding itself alongside the production lines. In the East and South China production areas, rail-sea intermodal transport extends directly into the factory zones. Once the finished air conditioners are containerized, they require no multiple transshipments and rapidly connect to ocean mainlines via Shanghai, Nansha, Yantian, and other ports. At the Qingdao industrial base, goods are loaded directly onto vessels upon leaving the production line, significantly shortening the delivery chain. Additionally, a dedicated 24-hour customs clearance channel for appliance exports has been established, enabling immediate dispatch upon completion and flexible shipment aligned with production, fully unblocking the “first mile” for domestic products going global.

Targeting different home appliance enterprises, COSCO SHIPPING Lines implements a “one enterprise, one policy” approach to precisely match their needs. For Changhong Meiling, Whirlpool, and TCL, COSCO SHIPPING Lines (Shanghai) customized a “rail-sea intermodal transport + destination trucking” one-stop, end-to-end service. By matching production schedules with secured shipping capacity to support export growth, their export volumes have increased significantly. COSCO SHIPPING Lines Qingdao has collaborated with Haier and Hisense to establish a normalized booking tracking and communication mechanism. This facilitates real-time exchange of sailing schedules, tracking changes in overseas orders, and the dynamic optimization of transshipment schemes. Currently, Haier has urgently added an order of 100,000 air conditioners destined for France and Spain, and Hisense has seen substantial growth in overseas orders. Leveraging our comprehensive supply chain services, we ensure the smooth handling of these large-volume shipments.

Flexibly Allocating Shipping Space to Calmly Navigate Shipping Market Changes

The maritime corridor between Asia and Europe is frequently subject to the influence of a complex and volatile global shipping environment. COSCO SHIPPING Lines dynamically allocates its global fleet to ensure sufficient shipping space on European routes, precisely adapting to the shipment rhythm of cooling appliances. To build a multi-point, interconnected, efficient, and stable cross-border logistics system, COSCO SHIPPING Lines has upgraded its European route network layout. This involved optimizing the sequence of port calls, expanding mainline capacity, enhancing hub transshipment efficiency, and simultaneously improving logistics corridors to the UK and Poland. In the first half of 2026, approximately 1.75 million sets of cooling equipment were transported by COSCO SHIPPING Lines to Europe, bringing waves of coolness to countries including France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and the UK.

Overseas Node Positioning for Rapid Fulfillment of Terminal Orders

Facing the pressure of surging orders, COSCO SHIPPING Lines has tailored a China-to-Europe end-to-end integrated logistics solution for home appliance enterprises. Covering domestic land transport, international ocean shipping, and European last-mile delivery, the solution features full-process visibility management. This achieves a seamless supply chain connection, powerfully guaranteeing the efficient and stable delivery of home appliance products.

Overseas Forward Warehouses Shorten Order Delivery Cycles

By moving inventory closer to the buyer’s “doorstep,” we have deployed forward warehouses in Piraeus (Greece), Zeebrugge (Belgium), and Gdansk (Poland). This enables emergency replenishment in the event of sudden supply chain disruptions, avoiding long-distance emergency stock transfers and supply chain delays and significantly shortening the order delivery cycle.

Port-Shipping-Warehouse Integrated VFH Mode Achieving Direct Port Pickup and 24-Hour Order Fulfillment

After arriving at the port from China, cargo can directly enter VFH (Vector Field Histogram) warehouses operated by the company. Here, e-commerce systems pull goods for fulfillment based on orders, eliminating multiple transfers and intermediate links. Compared with the traditional FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) model, the overall fulfillment chain is drastically compressed. Orders can be dispatched within 24 hours, significantly improving delivery stability and customer inventory flexibility.

Opening Up the “Last Mile” from Port to Factory

Addressing the concentration of shipments from home appliance customers and their arrivals at ports, which places pressure on road port-haulage, COSCO SHIPPING has launched multiple rail block trains. Utilizing road-rail-sea intermodal transport, this approach greatly enhances the efficiency of cargo consolidation and port distribution, ensuring transportation stability. The entire logistics chain, including European customs clearance, warehousing, and distribution for home appliance enterprises such as Midea, TCL, Haier, and Hisense, is efficiently guaranteed by COSCO SHIPPING Lines.