According to Japan Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration News (JARN), 2015 was a tough year for both the global compressor market and the global air-conditioning market. What do the numbers say?
World compressor market
According to JARN, 2015 was a difficult year for compressor manufacturers. While the global air-conditioner market in 2015 fell by 3.6% year-on-year, it is estimated that rotary, scroll and screw compressors for air conditioners decreased by 10.8%, 9.4% and 7.9% respectively.
However, centrifugal compressor (15 500 units sold in 2015) and semi-hermetic reciprocating compressors (172 000 units) markets experienced an increase of 4.3% and 1.1% respectively. China, the world's largest compressor market, saw a 13% decrease.
Emerging markets pushed up demand for reciprocating, scroll and screw compressors for refrigeration, and these segments saw growth of 2.5%, 4.7%, and 4.5%, respectively.
World air-conditioner market
According to JARN, the global air-conditioner market fell by 3.6% year-on-year in 2015 -which is the first drop seen since 2012 – with varying performances between geographic zones.
China, the world largest air-conditioner market, fell by 8.7% due to macroeconomic obstacles and challenging weather conditions. However, manufacturers continued to expand their production volumes, resulting in a large amount of inventory.
The overall Southeast Asian market grew by 6% year on year, marking a decelerate growth rate. Vietnam experienced a sharp 35% expansion of its room air-conditioner market due to prolonged spells of high temperatures, higher level of apartment construction and increasing urbanisation.
Overall, the European air-conditioner market, notably thanks to favourable weather conditions, grew by 6% with strong growth in Spain (+25%), Italy (+25%), France (+8%) and Germany (+8%).
