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June 30 - Split ACs Growing in Turkey (Uploaded)

Penetration of air conditioning in the domestic sector in Turkey is said to be not more than 2% in a population of 70 million - according to data from the Turkish ac trade association ISKID. The association began collecting market statistics from its members in 1993 and coverage is now said to represent 80-90% of the industry value.
The country has a wide range of climatic conditions, from southern coastal regions at 40-45 C in summer (5 C in winter) to its eastern borders where summer temperatures of 25 C are followed by winters of minus 35 C. The potential for air conditioning is concentrated in the large cities and the coastal tourist resorts.
All the major international players are represented and the market is very competitive. As in many European countries, single splits have virtually destroyed the market for window units - sales fell from 30 000 in 1998 to 2000 in 2003. Splits have enjoyed a 15% year-on-year growth and sales in 2003 are estimated at around 410 000 units. Local manufacturers also exported some 225 000 units. VRF systems had a market of 600 units.
Local producers are prominent in the air handling units market: sales in 2003 were 18 500 units. Rooftops versions sold around 400 units.
Fan-coils are also well represented by local manufacturers who exported 13 000 units in 2003: home sales were 48 000 units.
Chillers sold nearly 900 units, most in ratings below 200 kW and most were in the form of air-cooled packages.
Source: Eurovent-Cecomaf Review, Belgium

June 29 - Hitachi and MHI Agree to Integrate AC&R Operations

Hitachi, Ltd., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Hitachi Air Conditioning Systems Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, has reached a basic agreement aimed at strengthening air-conditioning and refrigeration operations. The agreement calls for MHI's Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Systems Headquarters (excluding the automotive thermal systems business) and Hitachi Air Conditioning Systems to be integrated and run under a joint venture company owned by Hitachi and MHI.
The integration is scheduled for April 1, 2005. Hitachi and MHI will manage the joint venture as equal partners. Details of the joint venture will be decided after further discussions.
Commercial air-conditioning and refrigeration businesses in Japan must now expedite business development and develop products with a small environmental impact to step up their response to energy conservation, the prevention of ozone depletion, the prevention of global warming and other market demands. Stepping up the pace of global development is also important in light of expectations for growth in demand in China and other regions, and other trends.

June 27 - Many Participants Applying for HARFKO 2005

On May 1st, 2004, the Secretariat of HARFKO started to receive applications from companies who will participate in HARFKO 2005. Many companies around the world are registering with great enthusiasm.
The 7th HARFKO will be held during May 25th to 27th and thanks to great enthusiasm of the participating companies, the 2005 exhibition is expected to be very successful. In addition, it will also celebrate KRAIA's 30th anniversary since its first launch in 1989.
HARFKO 2005 is planed to be held in Hall 1 and Hall 2 of Korea International exhibition center(KINTEX), the biggest and most modernized exhibition center in Korea and a total of 21,384? which doubles the last year's exhibition.
As HARFKO 2003 was acknowledged as an international event bringing together a total of 152 exhibitors - 80 domestic and 72 foreign, HARFKO 2005 are attracting attention of lots of experts and companies around the world in HVAC industry.

June 26 - Daikin Unveils Inverter- Driven Medium-Temp PAC

Daikin Industries has released a total of 10 new models of "Inverter- Driven Medium-Temp Air Conditioners ZEAS" which have halved the yearly power consumption by incorporating an energy saving inverter for medium temperature applications for the first time in the industry. Released this time are a total of 10 models available in the ceiling-concealed, round flow cassette and ceilingsuspended types each ranging from 2 to 5 hp.
Although medium-temp ACs are usually put to the cooling operation for a long period, they have attained more than a 50% drastic cutdown on yearly power consumption compared to the company's conventional constant-speed models, since the new products are capable of high efficiency operation thanks to the inverter control in both high and low load seasons. In order to enhance safety of foods, there has yearly been a growing tendency for temperature in the working room to be set at a lower value. In the case of a constant-speed system, the lower temperature limit has been confined to some 14^°C, since frost is formed on the evaporator coil when the temperature drops further. Since the new units allow a wider range of set temperatures, the lower limit of temperature control has been sizably extended down to 10^°C. This enables optimum air conditioning for vegetable, meat and other perishable processing facilities where even lower temperature environment is required. Also, thanks to the inverter function, the range of temperature fluctuations to the set temperature in the working room is reduced, thus making more advanced temperature control possible.

June 24 - World ACR compressors market - BSRIA Study

World production levels have risen to 75.5 million air conditioning compressors at a value of US$ 6.5 billion, and 110.7 million refrigeration compressors at a value of US$ 5.4 billion.
Rapid growth is expected in air conditioning to 110 million compressors by 2006, with significant growth also in most refrigeration compressor types.
Small hermetic compressors dominate both for air conditioning and refrigeration. Rotary for RAC air conditioners and dehumidifiers currently accounts for nearly three quarters of the world production of air conditioning compressors, whilst small reciprocating for domestic refrigerators account for 84% of the total production of refrigeration compressors.
Air conditioning compressors
China (43%) and East Asia (28%) dominate production. For small rotary compressors their share is even higher and set to increase further as both American and Japanese based companies continue to shift production to this region. Rotaries are also one of the fastest growing areas of production, although not at the same levels as scroll and in particular screw compressors. Scroll and screw compressors have been eroding reciprocating whilst screws has taken share from centrifugal compressors, which has also suffered from the general lack of investment on large projects globally. Nevertheless a general upswing is expected over the next couple of years.
China and East Asia are not as strong in the commercial air conditioning compressor market. Here the major share of production is in the Americas, with strong local OEMs including the worldwide compressor supplier Copeland; nevertheless some are these are increasingly looking to move at least part of their production to China. The US will continue to be the hub for the production of centrifugal compressors.
Refrigeration compressors
Here Europe and Americas control 61% of the world's unit production. East Asia is also important, but only due to its significance of small domestic refrigeration compressors through Korean manufacturers LG and Samsung, as well as Japanese manufacturers Sanyo and Matsushita's Asian plants. In terms of growth, screw and scroll compressors are growing much faster, albeit from a much smaller base.
Reciprocating refrigeration compressors have held on to market share on the commercial side (unlike for air conditioning) and are the strongest production area in volume terms and is dominated by manufacturers such as Tecumseh, Embraco and Copeland. Nevertheless, there are huge variances in the size of these compressors, with some dedicated to the heavy commercial and industrial sectors, particularly in Europe. The same is true for screw compressors, with leading producers York on the industrial side and Bitzer and Refcomp on the heavy commercial side.
No major shifts in production have been seen on the commercial refrigeration side however, as with air conditioning, producers are looking for consolidation (e.g. Danfoss Household looking to relocate its Mexican production to its European plants). For residential sized products, companies are looking to shift production to low cost countries.
The full study
The World Market for Compressors, a brand new study of global AC&R compressor production, was published in April 2004. The project was a joint venture between BSRIA (UK), specialising in building services research and consultancy and the publisher JARN (Japan Air Conditioning, Heating and Air Conditioning News). The reports are published in four regional volumes and a world summary:

1. Japan
2. China and East Asia (separate data for China)
3. Europe
4. Americas
5. World

June 22 - Sanyo Releases Comm'l Cogeneration System (8 kW)

Sanyo Commercial Sales released from April 2004 the SGS-W08A2(N/ P)11, a new "8 kW Commercial Cogeneration System" with a separate hot water storage tank. In the same product lineup, there is a system with a built-in hot water storage tank which was released in April last year, and these two models can widely meet the needs of users.
A cogeneration system produces electricity by driving a power generator with a gas engine, while recovering waste heat to utilize it for hot water supply.
Having reached the industry's highest overall energy efficiency of 91.2%, the new product can reduce the running cost by high efficiency operation. Like conventional systems, the new system can cut down energy consumption by controlling the engine speed (rpm) most efficiently according to the electric power load fluctuations.
Since the hot water storage tank is installed separately, the user can choose a tank suitable for specific use, and connect the system with a tank or boiler suitable for each season, so that it is ideal for users needing more hot water supply such as hotels and large medical treatment facilities. It is applicable to a wide range of fields, since it can be connected to units other than hot water supply, such as desiccant ACs and floor heaters.
It also becomes possible to connect the system to the remote monitoring system "3S Net" released in October 2002 by adding a remote monitoring adapter, thus allowing a dedicated engineer to monitor 24 hours a day 365 days a year.
Since April last year, the company has been providing a service to report the monthly operational conditions to each user.
The new system has also attained the industry's longest gas engine maintenance interval of 10,000 hours, thus realizing further maintenance savings.
By means of a weekly timer function, up to 5 patterns of preferential operation can be reserved everyday.
The power generation output is 8 kW and hot water output is 22 kW.

June 20 - AC Price Hikes: Chinese Makers, too

Chinese AC makers headquartered in Guangdong Prov. have decided to increase export product prices by 5 ~ 10%, as a Japanese trade newspaper reported.
Being affected by the soaring cost of raw materials such as steel sheets and paints throughout the world, it has become difficult to absorb these material cost increases by each maker's efforts towards production cost reductions. Since the Chinese makers are supplying their products to home electric appliance makers in Europe, USA, Japan, Southeast Asia and other countries/regions on the OEM basis, the Chinese makers' AC price increases will affect the AC prices in the world.
The price increases were announced at Canton Fair, China's largest export trade fair, held from April 15 in Guangzhou City. The rate of price increase announced by Midea Group is some 10%, that by Kelon Electric some 5%, and that by Galanz about 10%. The largest maker, Zhuhai Gree, does not yet increase their product prices, since they "can absorb the material cost increases by the internal efforts thanks to the large enough scale of production." Another factor contributing to the cost increase is the fact that from January the Chinese government lowered the refund rate on added value tax applied to ACs when exported.
The vast majority of Guangdong based makers are endeavoring to expand their exports centering around those on the OEM basis, having reportedly exported some 7.5 million units from Guangdong Prov. last year. The export prices have dropped more than 40% on the average for the last 4 years.

June 18 - HVAC Asia 2004 Being Held July 6-9

JARN Booth No.5756 in Hall 5A, Singapore Expo, Singapore
HVAC ASIA is Southeast Asia's largest international exhibition on Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning technologies. Since its inception in 1997, this award-winning exhibition is reputed for its high quality, strong focus and wide international coverage of exhibitors and visitors.
HVAC ASIA 2004 will house 7 national/group pavilions from China, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, the UK and the US. Visitors can also expect to see individual participants from countries/areas such as Australia, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the US and the UK.
Get connected with Carel China Limited, Carpenter Limited, Galco SA, IT-TEC International Ltd, J.W. Harris Co. Inc, Ningbo Zhongli Industry Co. Ltd. and Solvay Fluor Und Derivate GmbH, which are a handful of the many exhibitors present.
Visitors can also look forward to witness new product launches at HVAC ASIA 2004's New Product Showcase. There are two categories involved: "First in Asia" and "First in the World". In essence, visitors will be able to see the latest and most innovative products the industry has to offer for the first time.

June 16 - Carel Exhibits at China Refrigeration 2004

At the largest annual HVAC&R expo in China, Carel has presented its latest solutions: the pCO sistema series of AC controllers, the pCOXS compact programmable controller and the PGD graphic display (in Chinese) included, the E2V Electronic expansion valve. Additionally on display: the range of Carel humidifiers, the supermarket control solutions and plant control with the PlantVisor web server based supervisory program.
Carel China Ltd., one of Carel subsidiaries located in the Far East region, aims at developing markets in both China and Asia-Pacific regions. To keep an eye on the Chinese energetic market, Carel has been working in this area for several years and Carel China Ltd. was established to boost the market development of the area. The company provides customers in China, Macau & Hong Kong with commercial and technical support services. Furthermore, a representative office has been set up in Shanghai which specifically focus on customer technical services within Mainland China. Meanwhile, Carel China Ltd. is also responsible for coordination and development of the HVAC&R market within the Asia- Pacific region, including Thailand, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, etc.

June 14 - Tadiran Appliances Announces Its Latest Developments

As Tadiran places the value of service and customer satisfaction as its main priority, the need for improving the maintenance procedure has been pointed out as a problematic and painstaking procedure for the actual service provider. One of the most costly, timeconsuming and wasteful aspects of small equipment servicing is the testing procedures and replacement of control boards. This burdensome task now looks set to be revolutionized by a new 'in-house' invention of Tadiran, the TACSER. This easy-to-use, hand-held device can examine the air conditioner's system operation.
Despite the obvious benefits, one of the best features of the device is that little knowledge of controls is needed in order to use it. This new tool displays the control board's features with accordance to the air-conditioner's operation on site, before responsibility for any perceived problem is heaped on either the control board or any other part of the system and therefore is unnecessarily removed and returned to the manufacturer.
The TACSER can prevent unnecessary replacement of parts, and can directly point to the faulty part.
The device can display the status of electrical ports, temperature sensors, etc. and compares their data with the actual requirements from the air conditioner. A more sophisticated mode (extended menus) of the device can also examine the timer settings, line voltage, indoor and outdoor fan speeds, dipswitch settings, dampers and even external temperature sensors. These testing device tools are currently being used and are very popular with Tadiran's service technicians.
Tadiran has also engaged itself in upgrading its Zone Control System for ducted mini-split systems. The latest release includes fresh air control and bypass of excessive airflow. The system can control a fixed speed compressor or a two-stage compressor (similar to Bristol's TS).

June 12 - Toshiba Carrier and Midea Sign for Strategic Alliance

Toshiba Carrier, a subsidiary of Toshiba, Japan and UTC Carrier, USA, signed on the agreement on June 3, 2004 to set up joint ventures for air conditioning business in China.
Midea Holding Co. Ltd., a leading Chinese home electric appliances maker, will sell a 20 percent stake of its air conditioning division to Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Carrier.
Midea's air conditioning division, made up of four companies in China, will produce air conditioners for Toshiba, which will be sold both in China and Japan, and the two sides will further cooperation in research and development, according to the announcement from both companies. As an important shareholder of the joint venture, Toshiba Carrier will take part in the company's decision-making while the Chinese side holds the majority shares.
Starting its business of electronic home appliances in 1980, Midea reported an operating revenue of 17.5 billion yuan (2.12 billion US dollars) in 2003 as a leading producer of air conditioners, electric fans, electric cookers, refrigerators and microwave ovens.

June 10 - Hitachi Air-cooled Chiller with 20% Raised COP

Hitachi Air Conditioning Systems, jointly with Tokyo Electric Power, Chubu Electric Power and Kansai Electric Power, has developed air-cooled chillers (heat pump type/cooling-only type) having the world's highest COP of 4.1/3.7 (cooling capacity 160/180 kW at 50/60 Hz) in the field of air-cooled chillers mainly for commercial building and factory air conditioning uses. They were also unveiled at HVAC&R JAPAN 2004.
While reducing the environmental load by adopting the ODP-free refrigerant R407C, the new chillers have realized drastic energy savings and cutdown on the running cost.
In recent years, there has been an increasing tendency towards introduction of environmentally friendly energy saving chillers adopting the ODP-free refrigerant into commercial buildings and factories, so as to reduce the energy cost and CO₂ emissions. Therefore, Hitachi intends to reinforce the sales of new products, aiming to sell more than 200 units/ year from March.
As a technology, the company has developed a high precision screw rotor capable of minimizing the refrigerant leakage by reducing the clearance between the rotor and external casing in the refrigerant compressor, thereby improving the compression efficiency. The heat exchanging efficiency has also been raised by adopting longer heat transfer tubes and improved layout. Improved efficiency has also been obtained by optimizing the heat transfer plate which performs heat exchange between refrigerant and water, while a larger rate of air flow into the air heat exchanger has been realized by adopting a high efficiency fan with an improved blade shape. As a result, about 20% efficiency improvement in terms of cooling COP has been achieved compared to the company's predecessor model in the same capacity class (COP: 3.4/3.1), and about 10% drop in running cost has also been realized. Yearly CO₂ emissions can also be cut by about 10%, thus contributing to the reduction of environmental load.
The new chillers are available in heat pump type and cooling-only type (40 ~ 120 hp each).

June 8 - Sanyo Develops "K1 Series" GHP Adopting R410A

Sanyo Electric Co. has developed the "K1 Series" gas heat pump air conditioners (GHPs) for commercial applications adopting R410A for the first time in the industry. The company plans to release 5 models of VRF system (8, 10, 13, 16 and 20 hp) and 3 models of high power VRF system incorporating a generator (13, 16 and 20 hp) from October this year through Sanyo Commercial Equipment Co.
The company has succeeded in improving the efficiency of the "K1 Series" by adopting R410A whose ozone depleting potential (ODP) is zero and pressure loss is small, thus leading to a cutdown on the running cost.
By realizing the adoption of R410A for commercial GHPs, the company intends to commercialize units whose COP is higher than 1.4 (cooling/heating average).
When recalculated by presupposing the use of electric energy (secondary energy), this COP becomes higher than 3.6, thus excelling that of EHPs (electric heat pump ACs) which adopt R410A.
The new models are also standardly equipped with an energy saving operation mode function which automatically detects the outdoor unit's operating conditions and thereby controls the compressor/ gas engine's total efficiency to the highest value.
Since an AC model selection tends to be made for maximum load, the unit is operated under part load conditions for many of the yearly service hours. In order to realize higher efficiency by the energy saving operation mode, the company aims to raise the COP above 1.5 (cooling/heating average). By means of this function, efficiency under part load conditions can be improved further.
Additionally, adoption of R410A with a small pressure loss can help reduce the refrigerant piping diameter by one size, and realize a maximum of about 20% reduction in additional refrigerant charge into field pipings.

June 6 - Gustav Lorentzen Natural Working Fluids Conference
29th Aug - 1st Sept 2004 Glasgow, UK

The Institute has been overwhelmed with offers to present papers at this years 6th IIR Gustav Lorentzen Natural Working Fluids Conference, taking place on 29th August to 1st September. Over 160 abstracts were submitted last month, from 37 different countries.
This includes 17 UK authors. Carbon dioxide was the most popular theme for papers -over one third of those submitted covered carbon dioxide applications such as mobile air conditioning and supermarkets. Other abstracts covered Hydrocarbons, Ice Slurry, Ammonia, Air Cycle, Sterling cycles, Sorption and Energy Efficiency.
It is expected that up to 350 will attend the conference, which will provide an extended international forum for the latest developments in natural refrigerants. As well as the technical papers, the programme features key speakers, three technical site visits and short courses providing an introduction to working with Ammonia, Carbon Dioxide, Hydrocarbons and Free Cooling systems.
The Conference is being held at the University of Glasgow, which has close historical associations with key figures in early refrigeration such as Lord Kelvin and Rankine. It also offers exceptional character as a venue with a mix of meeting room styles. The Conference Dinner will be held at the University in the Hunter Hall, a venue usually reserved for graduation ceremonies and other special occasions. By contrast, the Welcome Reception is being hosted at the innovative Glasgow Science Centre by the Lord Provost of Glasgow.
Organised by
The International Refrigeration Committee of the UK Institute of Refrigeration

June 4 - Midea Held Stone Laying Ceremony in Wuhan

JARN reported that Midea signed an agreement with Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone on Jan. 16 in its February issue "Midea to Construct 3rd AC Factory in Wuhan".
On Feb. 28, just one month after the report, Midea held a foundation stone laying ceremony for its Wuhan Industrial Park that occupies about 53 hectares in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone. Wuhan Industrial Park is Midea's third production base following Shunde and Wuhu, and the project will spend a total investment of 800 million RMB yuan to secure 3 million sets of yearly air conditioner production capacity by the year 2005. 200 million RMB yuan has already been invested for Phase I of this project. It will be constructed and put into production this year as planned, and will attain the production target of one million sets of air conditioners.
Mr. He Xiangjian, Midea's Chairman & President, announced at the foundation stone laying ceremony that Midea's strategic target for air conditioners is to have the sales volume exceed 10 million sets within 3 ~ 5 years and become one of the top three air conditioner manufacturers in the world.
Its sales target in 2004 is 6 million sets, of which domestic sales volume will occupy 4 million sets and export sales volume 2 million sets. The company intends to cling to the principle of "scale maximization under the condition that the integral cost keeps ahead".
Mr. Fang Hongbo, Vice President of Midea, believes that competition for electric household appliances will eventually depend only on three factors, i.e. specialization, scale and leading total cost. Wuhan enjoys convenient communication, has an important strategic position, and especially possesses a solid foundation for R&D of refrigeration technology and a relatively reasonable supply chain in the refrigeration industry, compared to Guangdong and Anhui. Its cost advantage is quite obvious. Selecting Wuhan as Midea's third production base accords with the basic strategy of leading total cost.

June 3 - Midea Held Stone Laying Ceremony in Wuhan

JARN reported that Midea signed an agreement with Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone on Jan. 16 in its February issue "Midea to Construct 3rd AC Factory in Wuhan".
On Feb. 28, just one month after the report, Midea held a foundation stone laying ceremony for its Wuhan Industrial Park that occupies about 53 hectares in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone. Wuhan Industrial Park is Midea's third production base following Shunde and Wuhu, and the project will spend a total investment of 800 million RMB yuan to secure 3 million sets of yearly air conditioner production capacity by the year 2005. 200 million RMB yuan has already been invested for Phase I of this project. It will be constructed and put into production this year as planned, and will attain the production target of one million sets of air conditioners.
Mr. He Xiangjian, Midea's Chairman & President, announced at the foundation stone laying ceremony that Midea's strategic target for air conditioners is to have the sales volume exceed 10 million sets within 3 ~ 5 years and become one of the top three air conditioner manufacturers in the world.
Its sales target in 2004 is 6 million sets, of which domestic sales volume will occupy 4 million sets and export sales volume 2 million sets. The company intends to cling to the principle of "scale maximization under the condition that the integral cost keeps ahead".
Mr. Fang Hongbo, Vice President of Midea, believes that competition for electric household appliances will eventually depend only on three factors, i.e. specialization, scale and leading total cost. Wuhan enjoys convenient communication, has an important strategic position, and especially possesses a solid foundation for R&D of refrigeration technology and a relatively reasonable supply chain in the refrigeration industry, compared to Guangdong and Anhui. Its cost advantage is quite obvious. Selecting Wuhan as Midea's third production base accords with the basic strategy of leading total cost.

June 1 - Trane Builds "Central Air Conditioner City"

Recently, Trane's general manager Mr. Wei Riming has expressed to correspondents: Taicang is a hot land for investment for 2 ~ 3 years to come. Trane's annual sales will exceed 2.5 billion RMB yuan, and a "Central Air Conditioner City" will appear in Taicang.
Taicang, where Trane is situated, is a civilized and hygienic city in China, only 45 minutes away from Shanghai by car, thus very convenient for communication.
Trane announced that in 2003 its sales showed a 23% increase over the previous year, recording an all-time high and achieving 153 million RMB yuan of profit and paying 84,728,000 RMB yuan of tax , thus becoming one of the "biggest tax payers".
This year, Trane is to add US$10 million investment to be mainly used for improvement and installation of plant facilities, production systems and R & D of new products.
The Asian Design Center as Trane's core department has already started operation. In the future, while satisfying the Chinese market, Trane ACs will also penetrate into the whole of Asia-Pacific region.
General manager Wei said happily that in January and February this year a very delightful impetus appeared: i.e.
Trane's sales showed 30% jump over the same period of last year, so that Trane's market share will expand to US$700 million after 5 years from the start of operation in China.

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