Since the beginning of this year, driven by multiple favorable factors such as high-temperature weather, the production, and sales scale of refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment has reached a record high, and the industry has maintained a relatively high degree of prosperity. With the continuous improvement of China's urbanization rate, the increase of residents' income level, the increase of newly married families, the construction of low-income housing, and the gradual recovery of the global economy, the refrigeration and air conditioning equipment industry will maintain an upward trend in the next five years, and the growth rate is expected to be maintained at around 5-8% from 2016 to 2021.

Promising industry development prospects

Since 2003, the refrigeration and air conditioning equipment industry has developed rapidly and maintained a steady growth from 2003 to 2013. By the end of 2014, there were 860 enterprises with a scale of more than twice that of 2003. Since 2003, the industry's sales revenue has been on a straight upward trend, making China a major country in the production of refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment. In addition to meeting the domestic market demand, the products are also exported in batches all over the world. In 2014, the sales revenue of the refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment industry was 266.235 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.76%.

As a result, domestic brands have risen collectively, and their voice in the industry has continued to increase. The central air-conditioning field has accelerated the trend of domestic inward and foreign retreats. In 2015, domestic brands accounted for 47.5% of the entire domestic central air-conditioning market, an increase of 0.2% compared to 47.3% in 2014.

However, the development of China's refrigeration and air-conditioning industry started relatively late, and the development in the field of air-conditioning product technology has only been 20 to 30 years. At present, the accumulation of various aspects is still insufficient. At the same time, the development and cultivation of the market are not perfect, and some objective factors are restricting the progress and improvement of the industry. The long-term low-price competition has also led to the slow pace of improvement in the overall product quality and technical level of the industry and has provided opportunities for the survival of counterfeit and shoddy products. Generally speaking, with the improvement of product quality and technical level, there is still much room for improvement in the refrigeration and air-conditioning industries. It is estimated that by 2021, the sales revenue of the refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment industry will exceed 450 billion yuan.

Analysis of industry development trend

According to the analysis, the refrigeration and air-conditioning industry will present six new trends in the future. First of all, the integration of industry mergers and acquisitions has intensified, which is aimed to integrate resources, improve product lines, and improve market competitiveness to obtain a larger market share.

Second, the awareness of energy conservation and environmental protection has increased. The electricity consumption of refrigeration and air-conditioning has put heavy pressure on the power supply and distribution of various cities. With the introduction of energy-saving standards for air-conditioning, higher requirements have been put forward for the high energy consumption problems that generally exist in the refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment industry. Coupled with the promulgation of a series of national policies and industry standards, products with energy conservation and environmental protection as the main advantage are developing rapidly and gradually becoming the dominant direction in the future.

Third, the overall price increase trend is obvious. With the implementation of new energy efficiency standards and the application of new technologies, people's requirements for comfort is increasing, and the proportion of high-end products will continue to increase, and the price increase trend is obvious.

Fourth, the focus of corporate competition has changed. The promulgation of new energy consumption standards means huge cost and technical pressure for manufacturers, and overall price increases in the industry have become the mainstream trend. The prices of raw materials such as copper have been fluctuating, causing many enterprises to pay special attention to cost control and inventory management, forcing production to be more planned and manufacturers paying more attention to the R&D of product functions.

Fifth, the growth of industry exports has slowed down. On the one hand, due to the impact of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis and the European debt crisis, and the deterioration of the international economic environment, the export growth rate of China’s refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment has slowed in recent years. On the other hand, the energy efficiency of refrigeration equipment, the limitation of refrigerant used in the Montreal Protocol, and the Kyoto bargain and other factors restricting the development of the refrigeration equipment market exist.

Finally, pressure on the domestic market has increased. The substantial appreciation of the RMB against the US dollar and other currencies has made Chinese companies lose their original cost advantages. Coupled with the gold rush of European, American, Japanese, and Korean brands in the domestic market, it has become more competitive.