Despite challenging market conditions, Australia has achieved double digit growth in the high wall air conditioning market for the first half of 2021.
In its latest report on global market trends, UK consultancy BSRIA, said the high wall splits market benefited from high temperatures in some regions and from investment in residential homes, as people continue to work from home.
Data centres applications are also going strong, benefitting from online shopping and construction activities, tourism and public investments which are slowly recovering
The report said that in the last 18 months, the global air conditioning market has been operating under challenging market conditions.
While this is largely due to the pandemic, other factors contributed to this environment including extreme weather events, partial and full lockdowns in different parts of the world as well as shortages and increased prices for raw materials and shipment delays.
“However, 2021 has to date been a year of recovery and growth as businesses and individuals have started adapting to the constantly changing circumstances,” the report said.
“In China, many dealers stocked up before raising prices, but on the other hand, the government’s restrictive measures against Covid-19 have restricted commercial activities.
“In the first half of 2021, the market performance of light commercial air conditioning such as ducted, cassette and high-power capacity floor standing units remained sluggish.
“In India, although sales in Q1 2021 were promising, the second wave of the pandemic came at the worst possible time for the splits market (mid-April) and lasted long enough to hit sales during the peak sales cycle.”
On the upside, the report said energy efficiency upgrades are scheduled for January 2022, but it is still not certain whether they will be postponed enabling some more time for local producers to adjust.
“There are some delays on many ongoing projects which kept the chiller market partially subdue,” the report said.
“In Europe, employees continued to work from home in the first half of the year and hi-wall single splits in the residential side recorded positive sales. Germany and France have recorded double-digit growth in the split market.
“In Italy, the chiller market is showing a strong indication of recovery.”
In the United States, the unexpected surge in demand of splits was met by a swindling supply.
A global shortage in chips and semiconductors and a general lengthening of lead time for most components created bottlenecks in the supply chain. Mini VRF is currently preferred in a modular form, while sustainable and profitable sales growth is expected by all chiller manufacturers.