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January 30 - York International Corp., USA, announced changes to its leadership team and plans to consolidate and reorganize its York Refrigeration Group (YRG) and Engineered Systems Group (ESG) into Geographic Units. The leadership changes and the realignment of these businesses support key short-term and long-term strategic initiatives.
"York International is a market leader in both industrial refrigeration and engineered HVAC systems, and there are many common or complementary technologies, skills and competencies shared by ESG and YRG" said Michael Young, President and Chief Executive Officer. "The synergy between these groups is substantial and their consolidation on a geographic basis will allow us to greatly increase the rate at which the benefits will be realized. The following leadership changes were announced, effective January 1, 2003:
David Myers has been named Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He will be responsible for strategy and business development and will have increased involvement in all operational activities within York.
He will continue to have responsibility for all financial and information technology activities. Peter Spellar has been named Vice President and President of York Europe, Middle East and Africa. This includes all Engineered Systems, Refrigeration and unitary products operations in those regions.
Iain Campbell has been named Vice President and President of the York Americas, which includes all of the Engineered Systems and Refrigeration activities in North America and all businesses in Latin America.

January 28 - Samsung Electronics will start full-scale production of white goods for Latin America and USA by investing US$50 million in Queretaro Province in the central part of Mexico.
Samsung Electronics' Mexican subsidiary, held the ground-breaking ceremony for the new production plant in June this year, in the presence of Mr. Jong Jeong-Mun, president of the subsidiary, and Governor of Queretaro Province.
When construction of the new plant is completed on the site 37,000 m² in total area in December, Samsung will mainly produce refrigerators and air conditioners, and also install new production lines for washing machines and microwave ovens, thereby making it serve as an export center for the USA and Latin America including Mexico.
Samsung's Mexican subsidiary intends to fully advance into Mexican market by increasing its power for competing with other foreign home electric appliances with the construction of the new plant for white goods production, following its Tijuana plant in Maquiladora (free export & import zone) in the northern part of Mexico for producing TVs, monitors and mobile phones. With its yearly sales target at US$600 million, Samsung's Mexican subsidiary is rapidly increasing its sales share in Mexican market, occupying No. 1 share of microwave oven and monitor markets, and standing in equal rivalry with Sony from Japan in TV market share. Mr. Jong Jeong-Mun, president of the subsidiary, said, "We expect that Samsung will be able to secure No. 1 position in Mexican market by full-scale advance of white goods plant, eventually playing the central role as an export base for Latin American and USA."

January 24 - According to Mr. Merzari, pioneer of HVAC & R in Central Italy, refrigeration business sharply declined in the current year in Italy.
Also in Italy, vice versa the Air Conditioning (A/C) RAC business increased a hefty 15 to 20 %. In A/C business Italy is the major market in Europe, in which RAC business is heavily influenced by weather conditions at the time when the summer starts. This trend varies from country to country in Europe, in spite of the European Union who unified the currency but is long way from unifying the economies. However, in A/C business a step forward is expected in the year 2004, when the RAC equipment will be classified according to the energy efficiency by alphabetic letters just as years ago when it was enforced in household refrigerator and white equipment in general.
The manufacturers who already adopted the more advanced hybrid inverter controlled systems, including the fan motors, will have a good head-start compared to the less sophisticated competitors. However, price level will keep its distinct attraction to buyers, keener to first cost than electricity bill reduction.
According to Mr. Rudolf Putz, General Manager of VDKF, promoter of IKK, the assessment of the energy efficiency of every refrigeration product, that will find its way into the market or key components used for these products, was an important theme at the 23rd IKK in Nuremberg. Mr. Putz, continued in his speech, stating that it was already apparent last year at the 22nd IKK in Hanover, where the load based power matching system, offered by many companies for compressor controllers in refrigeration and A/C systems, was the right pointer to future global development of refrigeration and A/C.
In the recent months, some of the world leading companies unveiled the development or the launch into the market of chiller lineups using highly advanced technologic energy saving devices and innovations.

January 22 - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) is going to discontinue domestic room air conditioner (RAC) production by September next year, and totally shift RAC production to its Thai subsidiary.
Due to the domestically severe competition, profitability of RAC business is deteriorating, and thereby MHI intends to turn the balance of its RAC business into the black from next year by reducing production cost through overseas production. As exemplified by Fujitsu's discontinuance of domestic production last year, Japanese RAC makers are either discontinuing or reducing their domestic production.
MHI is currently producing about 200,000 units of RACs centering around high-performance models mainly at its Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Systems Headquarter (Aichi Pref.). The company will shift this production to its Thai production subsidiary MACO (Bangkok). Redundant workers resulting from this shift will be relocated either within the A/C and Ref. system headquarters or other headquarters, but R and D division will be remained. Departments related to development and design are not shifted. Commercial and car ACs will continue to be produced in Japan.
MACO is producing about 500,000 units/year centering around low-end models, and part of them are shipped to Japan. Along with the planned shift of production, the company will discontinue production of several older models, and start high-performance models. MHI will also shift production of residential air conditioning appliances such as air purifiers and dehumidifiers to MACO.

January 20 - Hitachi Air Conditioning Systems Co. has agreed with Hisense Group, a major Chinese home electric appliance maker, on establishment of a commercial AC manufacturing/sales company in Qingdao City, Shandong, China, to meet the expanding demand for commercial multi ACs in Chinese market.
The new company becomes the second production facility in China for Hitachi Air Conditioning Systems, since it already has Hitachi Air Conditioning & Refrigerating Products (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. which is manufacturing/selling chiller units and commercial packaged ACs. (PACs). The new company will undertake local production of commercial multi ACs, middle-size PACs and also small chiller units and these products will be marketed with the double brand of "Hisense/Hitachi". With a supply system by two companies, Hitachi Air Conditioning Systems aims to achieve dramatic expansion of its business in China.
By starting production from June 2003, the company plans to realize ?15 billion sales in 2007, and aims to expand its commercial AC sales and secure 10% share of Chinese commercial AC market by 2010.

January 17 - Zamil Air Conditioners has upgraded its quality systems from ISO 9002:1994 to ISO 9001:2000. The certification is for its manufacturing facilities at Dammam, Saudi Arabia and the scope covers 'Design, Manufacture and Servicing of Air Conditioners and Air Conditioning Equipment'.
The proud moment came after a rigorous audit by ABS Quality Evaluations Inc. The certification comes without any non-conformity.
ISO 9001:2000 standard provides requirements for the quality management system, which can be used by an organization to improve its customer satisfaction by meeting the customers' requirements. Organizations which have used ISO 9001/9002/9003:1994 standards can now use just one standard - ISO 9001:2000. In future, this will be the only standard with which an organization can be certified.
Zamil Air Conditioners, one of the unit companies of Zamil Industrial Investment Company (ZIIC), is the largest supplier of air conditioners in the Middle East. It manufactures and markets a whole range of air conditioners - from room air conditioners to package units to large commercial and industrial range air conditioners, including chillers.
Zamil Industrial Investment Company (ZIIC), a Saudi joint stock company, comprises two other companies as well - Zamil Steel and Zamil Glass, both regional leaders in their respective businesses.
Zamil Air Conditioners controls ZIIC interests in the air conditioning sector. Besides its prime-manufacturing base at Dammam, Zamil Air Conditioners also operates two more dedicated factories - Clima Tech in Austria for specialized air handling units and Geoclima in Italy for water Chillers.

January 15 - A Japanese major newspaper reports that Kobe Steel, Ltd. has decided to team up with Wieland, a major German copper processor, concerning the copper business in the USA. By establishing an equally invested company in December, they will integrate their manufacturing and sales business, and also cooperate in product development, etc. Copper tubes are major components used for heat exchangers of air conditioners (ACs), and Kobe Steel has the second largest share of copper tube market in the USA. By teaming up with Wieland which is good at production of copper tubes for large ACs, Kobe Steel aims to strengthen its comprehensive business capabilities, thereby expanding the copper tube supply. They will establish Kobe Wieland Copper Products, Inc. (tentative name) by integrating the copper tube manufacturing and sales business now being undertaken by Kobe Steel's subsidiary, Kobe Copper Products, Inc. (KCPI, North Carolina) and Wieland's subsidiary, Wieland Metals, Inc. (WMC, Illinois). Kobe Steel and Wieland will invest 50% each of the new company's capital, US$40 million or less. Prior to the integration, Kobe Steel will purchase KCPI stocks owned by Mitsubishi Corp. and Nissho-Iwai Co. (35% in total).
By retrofitting the old equipment, KCPI's factory will integrate production two or three years later. Starting with about \16 billion of yearly sales, they will raise the sales amount to about \21 billion five years later.
While KCPI is mainly good at production of copper tubes for residential ACs, WMC is good at production of copper tubes for large ACs for buildings Since they have common costumers, they intend to strengthen their sales capabilities by mutually supplementing their products.
Based on the integration of their businesses in the USA, they will also examine possibilities of joint development of copper tubes, cooperation in business development, etc. There are possibilities of joint development of copper tubes having high heat exchanging rate which are regarded to be the core technology for more energy savings of ACs, and also of cooperation in operations in Asia where ACs are continuing to diffuse.
Kobe Steel is Japan's largest copper tube maker having about 100,000 tons/ year of production capacity, while Wieland is a major European copper tube maker probably having about 170,000 tons/year of production capacity.

January 13 - Daikin postpones beginning of the serial production on the factory in Brazil. According to AFX - Asia agency with the reference to Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Daikin Industries Ltd company postponed beginning of production of the semiindustrial series of air-conditioners on the factory in Brazil till 2004. The reason is defined as increasing of economic instability in the region. First it was planned that on the factory built on the place of production which belonged in the past to TRANE company there will be produced low- and mid- capacity air-conditioners within the framework of Daikin - Trane alliance since the end of this year. Taking into account vision of the economic situation in the region, Daikin is considering the possibility of production of the low-end series of air-conditioners which will be developed by the end of 2003. It is expected that Daikin will be able to produce and sell in the region up to 20000 items of the equipment per year.

January 10 - Air-conditioner will protect from terrorists. Pennsylvania University engineers developed the system of air-conditioning, which will prevent terrorist’s actions and will allow to save money. The matter is that modern systems of forced air-cooling facilitates fast distribution of toxic agents all through the building: if in a room there is opened a letter with spores of anthrax, through air-conditioners they will soon get to all the other premises. Developed by Stanly E. Mamma, professor of architecture, the air-conditioner, in which the process of free air delivery is separated from the functions of heating and cooling, solves the problem. Moreover, it is cheaper in installation and operation and provides more comfort to people inside.
The new air-conditioner combines independent system of fresh air delivery with cooling radiators filled with cold water. It allows to manage without repeated use of the air having been in the room already, and it means that hazardous substances will not be transported from one room to other premises of the building like in common air-conditioners where up to 80% of the air is being circulated. The prototype set up in the workshop of the University where Stanly E. Mamma works, looks the following way: fresh air is filled in through special hatches in the upper part of the walls. Cooling radiators make the air cool, and wall radiators, in case of necessity, warm it up. One of the researchers noticed that due to the fact that a human’s head radiates most of the heat, location of cooling batteries in the upper part makes it possible for people in the room to feel more comfortable than at standard method of forced air delivery.
According to Mamma’s calculations, the new approach will allow to save up to 22 dollars for a square meter when constructing a building. The cost of functioning of the new system will make up 60-70% from the old one.

January 8 - The European Union cannot fulfil its obligations taken by the Kyoto Protocol to reduce air venting of “greenhouse” gases. The head of Economic Analysis Department of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol has announced about that on the press-conference in Brussels.

January 6 - According to Appliance Magazine.com, Sanyo Electric Co. will stop production of air-conditioners for domestic use in Japan and will completely transfer production capacities to China till 2004.

January 5 - In Ural implementation of the Kyoto protocol positions starts. The Ural region will be the pilot in implementation of the Kyoto protocol positions in Russia. Work on implementation of the Kyoto protocol positions in Ural will start after ratification of the document by the State Duma. Till 2007 all the domestic enterprises will have to receive special certificates for the right of atmospheric pollution with limits of air venting. If an enterprise exceeds the limit, it will have either to invest money into ecological programs or to acquire quotas from another (also Russian) enterprises. Otherwise, the certificate will be cancelled. And vice versa: an enterprise which has achieved reduction of air venting compared to the limit, can set out excess on the domestic Russian market. If the quota offer will exceed the demand, enterprises will have the opportunity to resell quotas abroad. It can make a considerable profit: at the moment the market cost of a ton of pollutants is 1 dollar, and state ecological agencies of the European countries are intended to buy quotas for 4-5 dollars per a ton. Most of the funds acquired will be directed to enterprises - pace-makers of ecological production. According to the forecast, main customers of quotas will be Japan, EU countries, Canada and Australia.

January 3 - 36 railway carriages equipped with ventilation and air-conditioning system have been put into operation on the South-Ural Railway Station. Carriages have been manufactured on Tverskoy carriage-manufacturing plant. They are distinguished by modernised ventilation and air-conditioning system, the triple packet is installed on the windows. Thus, in a carriage “thermos” effect is achieved - inwinter heat is preserved, and in summer - coolness. Compartments of conductors are provided with a fridge and a microwave oven. Also there is set up a water refrigerant with disinfectant effect. A part of the equipment have been produced in Germany by Siemens company. Air-conditioning, heating, ventilation systems can be operated in the automatic mode. These carriages run between Chelyabinsk - Moscow in the train #13 "Southern Ural" and train #181, and also in the train #601 "Magnitka" Magnitogorsk - Moscow.

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