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Sales of made-in-China electric blankets surge as Europe’s homeowners struggle with soaring fuel bills

  • John Lewis Partnership says sales of electric blankets are up 67 per cent from a year ago, and online searches for the products have climbed almost 470 per cent
  • Electric blankets rank among Amazon.com’s bestselling home and kitchen products in the UK

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Amended prices seen at a self-service laundromat in Manchester on September 7, 2022. More than 1 million more people will be forced into poverty this winter, pushing UK deprivation levels to their highest for two decades even if the government freezes energy prices at current levels, according to media reports. Photo: AP
Bloomberg

The energy crisis engulfing Europe is making consumers turn to a solution thousands of miles away: electric blankets from China.

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Export data points to a surge that has buoyed the fortunes of companies like Shenzhen-based UTK Technology, a producer and seller of the blankets on e-commerce website Alibaba, which confirms demand has reached an unprecedented level this month.

Daily inquiries from European buyers have increased fivefold, and most people request urgent shipping, according to Crane Jin, UTK’s general manager. The company expects to deliver over 10,000 blankets to the continent in the next month.

“We have been working overtime a lot lately,” she said.

Europe is bracing for a difficult winter as soaring natural gas prices and a supply crunch driven by Russia’s war in Ukraine prompt governments to draw up energy rationing plans. Households, already battered by surging inflation, are looking for savings as they face eye-watering utility bill hikes.

Pedestrians and shoppers pass a Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) store on Ilica street in Zagreb, Croatia, on Monday, September 19, 2022. Croatia’s government earlier this month approved an aid package worth 21 billion kuna (US$2.8 billion) to ease the effects of the energy crisis and are seeking to raise minimum pension levels and increase assistance to families with children. Photo: Bloomberg
Pedestrians and shoppers pass a Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) store on Ilica street in Zagreb, Croatia, on Monday, September 19, 2022. Croatia’s government earlier this month approved an aid package worth 21 billion kuna (US$2.8 billion) to ease the effects of the energy crisis and are seeking to raise minimum pension levels and increase assistance to families with children. Photo: Bloomberg

Electric blankets, embedded with thin electric wires that disperse heat once plugged in, cost less than a third to operate compared to some heaters, according to estimates from EnergyAustralia. That is largely because they’re intended to warm the user up close rather than heat an entire room.

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