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Smardt expands chiller sales in China

Smardt-EK-signing
Smardt and Euroklimat sign their strategic alliance contract at Chongqing, earlier this month. From left: Lee Phong Ker, EK CEO; Ho Nyuk Choy, EK chairman; Roger Richmond-Sith, Smardt CEO and Sam Ringwaldt, Smardt GM, East Asia.

CHINA: Smardt, the global oil-free centrifugal chiller manufacturer, has formed a partnership with the Chinese arm of Italian manufacturer Euroklimat (EK) to expand sales of its products in China.

Euroklimat is said to be the largest European brand in China with 29 branches across the country. EK’s sales network includes over a thousand dealers and a nationwide technical support and service facility which operates 24 hours a day. EK’s Guangdong campus includes some 70,000m² of manufacturing space with an array of certified test facilities.

EK CEO Lee Phong Ker said today: “In the past seven years, EK has built a comprehensive HVAC product range and a strong market presence in China which provides an ideal platform for this world-leading range of oil-free magnetic bearing chillers.”

Smart was founded in Montreal, Canada, in 2005 to focus on the Turbocor oil-free centrifugal compressor technology. In 2005 the company joined forces with Australian heat exchanger company PowerPax to form the Smardt Chiller Group. In 2011, Smardt was joined by another oil-free technology pioneer OPK Klimatechnik of Stuttgart, Germany.

Smardt now operates factories in Germany, Australia, Canada, USA, China and Brazil, with regional service centres are located in Melbourne and Singapore.

Smardt CEO Roger Richmond-Smith noted: “The challenge of the world’s largest chiller market offers an enormous growth curve as we harness our well-proven magnetic bearing chiller technology to deliver very big energy efficiencies. The built environment uses some 40% of China’s total energy consumption for heating and cooling, and Smardt-EK is set to make a big reduction in this.”

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