Fan coils see European growth

EUROPE: Latest figures from Eurovent Market Intelligence (EMI) suggest that the fan coil market returned to growth in 2015 after several years of depressed sales.

Italy and other southern European countries were seen as the key growth areas in the fan coil sector which recorded an increase of around 10% for the European Union, or 1.51 million units for the entire EMEA region.

Italy showed a 20% increase, with around 350,000 units sold, followed by other Southern European countries such as Spain, Greece and Portugal, representing some 117,000 units sold in 2015, with a rate of growth greater than 25%. Sales in Russia collapsed to around half its previous volume, with sales of around 73,000 units. France and Turkey also saw their markets shrink this year (from -15% to -20%), then both stabilised at around 136,000 units each.

The EMI figures are gathered from 339 manufacturers covering selected product groups including fan coils, chillers, rooftop units, precision ac, air handlers and cooling towers.

Chilled water production

The market for chilled water production (whether cold, hot or reversible) exceeded €2.2bn in Europe in 2015 – €352m in Germany, €312m in France, €257m in Italy, €154m in the UK and €130m in Turkey. Overall, EMI reports a 5% increase in the EU in comparison to last year. The increase was 16% in Eastern Europe, 15% in Italy and 14% in Spain. Drops of 12% were observed in Ireland and the UK with a 3% decline in France and Germany.

Outside of the European Union, 40% decreases were seen in Russia and Ukraine, with a 15% reduction in Algeria. Strong growth was observed in Turkey (+23%) and the Middle East: Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all increased by over 30%. India remained up with an increase of +15% in 2015.

Rooftop units

The market for rooftop units are reported to have remained relatively stable in 2015, with around 8,900 units sold in the EU. France is still the largest market, with approximately 2,565 units, but dropped slightly by around -5%. Spain and Italy follow with 1,738 and 1,407 units sold respectively. They fared much better with increases between 10% and 15%. Turkey saw growth of 20% this year to reach a sales volume of around 2,200 units.

IT cooling

The EU market was estimated at around 32,300 units in 2015. This comprised 63% of CRAC units, 20% of row and rack coolers, 16% of TLC mobiles and 1% of air handling units.

With regards to CRAC, Germany was the largest European market in 2015, with 3,711 units sold, closely followed by Italy with 3,463 units, then the UK and France with 2,864 and 2,631 units respectively.

Germany led again with row and rack coolers, accounting for nearly 1,400 units. France followed with 1,063 units, the UK with 768 units and Italy with 730 units.

The TLC mobiles market is mainly concentrated in Italy with over 2,000 units sold in 2015, while Germany and Spain lag behind with 739 and 678 units respectively.

The air handling units market for the IT sector is mainly located in countries with cool or temperate climates, with the UK leading with around 100 units, followed by Germany, Benelux, Northern Europe and Russia.

Air handling units

The European air handling units market was worth €1.92bn in 2015. This is broken down as €393m in Germany, €326m in Northern Europe, €207m in Eastern Europe, €149m in Russia and CIS and €174m in Turkey. While the market remained stable at the heart of the EU, EMI reports the sharpest falls were observed in Russia, where the market lost over one third of its value, in Northern Africa, where a similar decrease occurred and more surprisingly in the German-Swiss-Austrian triangle where a drop of around 10% occurred. Some of the strongest gains were observed in Eastern Europe, which fared well overall, demonstrating increases in excess of 10% in Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia. India also experienced double digit growth, as did most countries in the Middle East.

Air filters

The air filters market remained stable in the EU in 2015 at almost €900m. Germany was the largest market at €232m, followed by France with €128m and the UK with €91m. The strongest growth, at over 20%, was observed in Switzerland, Portugal, Slovenia, Turkey and the Czech Republic. Results were lower in Norway, the Baltic states and South Africa, with decreases reaching as low as -20%.

Heat exchangers

The heat exchangers market reached €980m in the EMEA region in 2015, representing a decrease of around 7% in comparison to 2014. Among the countries identified by EMI as  responsible for this decrease were Russia, which saw its sales fall by a quarter to €60m, and Eastern Europe whose total market reached €122m, representing a fall of 5%. Other significant decreases were recorded in Ireland (-20%), the Netherlands (-27%), Turkey (-10%) and Germany (-8%), which remains the largest market in Europe at €145m.

The Southern European nations are among those which saw their market grow, with Italy leading with an increase of 24% for a market of €113m, Portugal with an increase of 23% for a market of €6.5m and Spain with an increase of 40% for a market of €52m.

Cooling towers

The cooling towers market in the EMEA region reached nearly €223m in 2015. As expected, the main markets were found in Germany (€32m), Italy (€18m), Turkey (€17m), France, UK and Russia with respective volumes of around €13m. The strongest increases (in excess of 20%) mainly occurred in Northern Europe (Finland and Sweden), in Northern Africa and Central Africa, as well as in France. Some of the sharpest drops occurred in Austria and Germany, as well as Russia, Spain and Ireland and ranged from -15% to -25%.

Chilled beams

The chilled beams market reached €60m in Europe in 2015, of which €26m was recorded in Northern Europe (the largest market), around €6m in France and the UK, and around €2.4m in Germany and Italy. With a global fall of around 5%, it is mainly in France, Germany, Turkey, Spain and Portugal where the drop will be felt the most, exceeding -20%. Conversely, increases exceeding 10% have been observed in Italy, in Sweden, in the Baltic states and in Luxembourg.