Strong economic prospects, solid sales increases predicted for 2014

A recent ASHRAE/AHR Expo survey sent to more than 1000 HVAC/R manufacturers worldwide revealed optimism for improving economic business prospects in the HVAC/R industry. According to the results, 79 per cent of the respondents said their prospects for business were either “excellent” (19 per cent) or “good” (60 per cent) for 2014. The remaining 21per cent of the respondents felt prospects were “fair.” Unlike last year’s survey, no one responding to the current survey felt economic prospects would worsen in 2014. In fact, 90 per cent of the HVAC/R manufacturers believe sales will increase, with 32 per cent expecting sales increases of more than 10 per cent. Market segments expected to be the most promising this year include: hospitals/health care (ranked first), followed by light commercial. Heavy commercial, data/telecom centres and office buildings also ranked highly. In terms of business prospects, maintenance/replacement, new construction and retrofit/renovation were fairly evenly split.