World refrigeration and air conditioning market to grow noticeably again in 2010.

According to information from BSRIA, the British market research group, the worldwide sales of refrigeration and air conditioning equipment will grow by about five per cent – about $66 billion in 2010, as against $63.2 billion in 2009. This comes as good news after a difficult year for the sector in 2009.

BSRIA expects appreciable growth for VRF air conditioning systems, split air conditioners and rooftop air conditioners, but the British researchers forecast another drop for window air conditioners and portable air conditioners.

The BSRIA analysis shows that sales in the worldwide market for refrigeration and air conditioning dropped by 10% in 2009, from $70 billion in 2008 to around $63.2 billion. Only VRF air conditioning systems managed to increase sales, whereas all the other segments had to accept considerable losses in some cases. This affected fan coils, chillers, mini split units and central air conditioning equipment.

The BSRIA study – ‘Global air conditioning feels the world recession in 2009’ (www.bsria.co.uk) – was published in April this year, and contains sales figures for the following products and product groups:

Air conditioners (portable air conditioners, split, multisplit and VRF air conditioners)

• Rooftops
• Chillers
• Air handling units
• Fan coils

BSRIA reports the following sales figures for these segments in 2009 (the figures in brackets show the changes over 2008):

The BSRIA study also includes the product groups of US ducted split units ($3.6 billion = -44 %), indoorpackaged units ($1.1 billion = -38 %) and portable air conditioners ($459 million = -7 %).