The trade war between the United States and China in 2018 has weakened confidence in global commerce, financial markets have been tightening in major countries, and many countries have seen increasing uncertainty in their national policies. According to statistics from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global economy has seen 3.8% growth in the first half of 2018, which dropped to 3.2% in the second half of the year.

Refrigeration equipment is an important tool to ensure food hygiene and safety. Refrigeration equipment is applied throughout the cold chain and strict temperature management is required for every link in the cold chain. Facing accelerated urbanization and a quickening pace of life, distribution sites in the food retail industry have been going through a fundamental revolution. 24-hour convenience stores and small-and medium-sized supermarkets have become popular among city residents, and this trend has offered great business opportunities to cold chain equipment suppliers.

The ATW heat pump market is mainly a renovation market in which ATW heat pumps replace oil systems or electric heating. Exhaust-air heat pumps are often used in new single- family houses. Finnish users favor heat pumps because of a 10% return on investment per year. The rising price of oil is expected to promote heat pump sales.

Despite the unfavorable global economic situation and weather conditions in 2018, the VRF market still achieved a relatively good performance compared with the air conditioning market as a whole. According to JARN statistics, based on outdoor units, the global VRF market has reached 1.77 million units, an increase of 5.7% over the previous year. China, Japan, and South Korea are the world’s three major VRF markets as well as global production bases.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised the global economic growth forecast for 2018 down-ward to 3.7%. Including the newly industrialized countries, the global air conditioning and refrigeration (AC&R) market has cooled down sharply, experiencing negative growth following five consecutive years of growth. According to JARN, the global air conditioning  market in 2018 grew by only 0.6%  from the previous year. The total market demand was 130.14 million units.