World News

AUSTRIA: Ecop, the Austrian developer of a highly efficient, single-stage rotation industrial heat pump has secured €10.5m investment to expand its production capacities.

USA/ITALY: US testing company UL Solutions has announced an expansion of its facility in Carugate, Italy, to meet growing European demand for comprehensive heat pump performance and safety testing.

UK: To celebrate World Refrigeration Day (WRD) 2025 and its Cool Skills theme, the WRD secretariat is inviting individuals and organisations to share their successes.

SPAIN: New research has found that dimethyl ether (RE170) and ternary mixtures of the same refrigerant with CO2 and butane could improve the energy efficiency of vapour compression systems.

CANADA: Trane has officially opened its first Canadian Trane Rental site in Brantford, Ontario.

SWEDEN: Sales of heat pumps in Sweden bounced back in Q1, increasing by 38% compared to last year, despite low housing construction.

BELGIUM: AREA, the European association of refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump contractors, has expanded its membership to 26 with the addition of new representative groups from Greece and Portugal.

POLAND: Polish customs officials have stopped more refrigerant being smuggled across the border from Ukraine in vehicle LPG tanks. Officers from the customs department in…

BELGIUM: A group of companies have a formed a new association to provide a unified voice for the food manufacturing technologies and equipment sector in Europe’s evolving food systems.

USA: Refrigerant and cylinder manufacturers in the US have admitted to being caught by surprise at the high level of demand for the lower GWP refrigerant R454B.

USA: Researchers in the US claim to have developed an easily manufacturable solid-state thermoelectric refrigeration technology that is twice as efficient as similar devices.

UAE: Daikin has formed a “strategic” partnership with Al Shola, a leading construction equipment rental company based in Dubai.

USA: In a further move to ease US R454B shortages, Carrier has announced it will convert its excess bulk R454B refrigerant into 20lb cylinders for use by distributors and contractor.

USA: Modine is investing more than $38m in the expansion of its data centre chiller factory in Grenada, Mississippi.

CHINA: The Danfoss factory in Tianjin recently hosted a visit from the Danish minister for foreign affairs, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, during the politician’s high-level tour of China.

UK: The secretariat of World Refrigeration Day has revealed that this year’s activities will be marked by an emphasis on the diverse and essential skills that make cooling and sustainable heating possible.

USA: Chemours has announced a strategic agreement to further demonstrate and develop advanced liquid cooling solutions for data centres alongside other industry leaders.

FRANCE: Arkema is to expand its range of lower GWP HFO blend refrigerants through a new commercial arrangement with Honeywell. 

USA: A number of US air conditioning manufacturers, including Carrier and Trane, have taken steps to help alleviate R454B refrigerant supply shortages in the USA.

JAPAN: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has established a new base in Dallas, Texas, for its data centre business.

USA: Parts Town has been named as the master distributor for genuine OEM replacement parts for The Whalen Company’s HVAC equipment across the United States.

INDONESIA: Production of residential air conditioners has commenced at Daikin's new $220m factory in Indonesia.

JAPAN: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ R1234yf chiller has won its second major Japanese technology award.

GERMANY: The organiser of Chillventa, the European air conditioning, refrigeration and heat pump exhibition, has announced an expansion of the event in 2026 with the addition of a further hall.

SOUTH KOREA: Growing demand for data centre cooling solutions and a desire to expand its applied HVAC portfolio is said to be behind Samsung’s €1.5bn purchase of the FläktGroup. 

GERMANY: Korean manufacturer Samsung Electronics is set to acquire all the shares of FläktGroup from investment company Triton for €1.5bn.

USA: Carrier has announced plans to invest an additional $1bn over five years in US manufacturing, innovation and workforce expansion.