World News

ITALY: Daikin Applied Europe is nearing completion of a new €16m R&D facility at its Ariccia manufacturing plant, near Rome.

EUROPE: Fifteen European member states have signed an open letter urging the European Commission to publish its delayed Heat Pump Action Plan and revise the “outdated” Heating and Cooling Strategy.

EUROPE: The European Commission has now published its proposals for minimum certification and training requirements for engineers under the new F-gas regulation 2024/573.

AUSTRALIA: Refrigerant Reclaim Australia (RRA) reports that it has reached the milestone of recovering 10,000,000kg of synthetic refrigerants since its inception in 1993.

USA: Keeprite Refrigeration is to relocate its Longview, Texas, manufacturing plant to a larger facility in nearby Kilgore.

USA: US authorities continue to enforce controls on HFCs under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, seizing illegal shipments and pursuing illegal importers. 

USA: Lennox has become the latest US manufacturer to announce a switch to lower GWP refrigerant R454B across all its residential HVAC products.

BELGIUM: Daikin Industries has celebrated its 100th anniversary with best-ever global sales but the “challenging” heat pump market saw sales drop in Europe.

JAPAN: Daikin Industries’ executive chairman and global group representative executive officer Noriyuki Inoue is set to retire at the age of 89 after 67 years with the company.

JAPAN: Carrier has dropped the Toshiba name from its Toshiba Carrier businesses. The move follows Carrier’s acquisition of the former joint venture business in 2022. 

USA: Commercial and industrial HVAC manufacturer Daikin Applied is to build a new custom HVAC and computer room AHU manufacturing facility in Tijuana, Mexico. 

USA: A startup developing high-efficiency heat pumps, air conditioners and refrigerators based on solid refrigerant technology has raised $8m from investors.

USA: Trane Technologies is to participate in the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Commercial Building Heat Pump Technology Challenge. 

USA: US supermarkets are accused of a lack of transparency and sluggish adoption of HFC-free refrigeration technology.

INDIA: Blue Star, India’s leading HVACR manufacturer and contractor, reports sales of Rs9685.36 crores (US$1.16bn) in the year to March 31, a 21.4% increase on 2023.

ITALY: Carel has signed an agreement with SECO SpA, an IoT and AI analytics software development specialist, to design a new refrigeration and air conditioning control and monitoring system.

ITALY: Davide Zardo, former CEO of Italian precision air conditioners and refrigeration systems manufacturer Uniflair, has been appointed as president and CEO of Schneider Electric Italia.

UAE: Andrea Cavalet, general manager of Epta Middle East, has been elected president of Eurovent Middle East. 

GERMANY: Heat pumps sales in Germany declined 52% in the first quarter of the year, according to new figures from the German heating industry association BDH.

UAE: Daikin Middle East and Africa FZE has appointed Almoayyed Contracting Group as its new distributor in Bahrain. 

USA: Carrier Commercial Refrigeration is bringing its CO2 mechanical refrigeration systems to its North American home market. 

USA: Refrigerant producer Chemours is to cease sales of high GWP HFC refrigerants R404A and R507A in the USA. 

UK: Charlotte Robinson, an industrial refrigeration engineer at Catalent Pharma Solutions in Swindon, UK, has won this year’s Women in Cooling video competition.

ITALY: Controls manufacturer Carel has officially opened its new 4,500m2 knowledge centre, home to the group’s thermodynamic research operations, technical training and promotion of its solutions.

BELGIUM: Claiming that the EU and national governments are currently failing to support a clean heat roll-out, a new report urges the next European Commission to make it a political priority.

USA: Energy and chemical company ExxonMobil and IT company Intel are to collaborate to bring data centre immersion cooling solutions to market 

GREECE: An Albanian van driver has been arrested in Greece for illegally transporting more than three tonnes of HFC refrigerant.