November 2011

The Japan Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Industry Association

Vol. 11-04

1. Massive floods in Thailand
In autumn this year, Thailand had its worst flooding in half a century. Many Japanese affiliatedcompanies were heavily damaged. Not only affiliated companies in Thailand but also parent
companies in Japan are affected by short supply of components, including semiconductors producedin Thailand, as chipmakers have been damaged.
Since the air-conditioner production bases of Japanesemanufacturers are a little distant from the flooded areas,
they didn't suffer from direct damages. However, parts
manufacturers' production has ceased because of the floods,
and therefore some air-conditioner makers are forced to stop
their production. If recovery of supply chain is delayed,
there will be possibility of production shortages among
air-conditioner

manufacturers.

Itisexpectedthatfloodwaters will subside by the end of this month. We hope that things get back to normal as soon aspossible.
2. Establishment of JRECOJAPAN Refrigerants Environment Conservation Organization was set up as an independent
organization on 11th October 2011 to enhance the activities against refrigerant leaks.
Until then, Refrigerants Recycling Promotion and Technology Center, the predecessor of the current
JRECO, had been promoting refrigerant recovery and training engineers since its establishment in
1993. JRECO's main business activities are; promotion of refrigerant emissions reduction inmaintenance and equipment disposal; training and qualifying of engineers for refrigerant recovery;
development of refrigerant recovery equipment; certification of refrigerant reclamation facilities;
registration system of refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment.
3. Development case examples of equipment using natural refrigerantsAs one of wide activities for global warming prevention, some private companies, institutions andNGOs supported by the government currently devote their energy to developing new systems using
natural refrigerants. Here we would like to introduce two case examples of newly developed
equipment in Japan.

1(1) One of JRAIA member companies launched on October 1st. their proprietary refrigerating systemusing air as an alternative refrigerant to fluorocarbon or ammonia. This system achieves 50% ofenergy saving at the maximum in the extreme low temperature zone (range of -50℃ to -100℃)
compared to conventional fluorocarbon vapor compression cooling systems. The system targets extra
low temperature market and can be used for a cold storage warehouse requiring capacity of 1 to 1.5
refrigeration ton.
(2) Four Japanese firms, including electric power companies, developed successfully the world’s first
prototype of axial flow chiller using water as refrigerant. This development was supported by Danish
Energy Agency and completed in technical cooperation with institutions both at home and abroad.
This prototype is anticipated achieving targeted COP5.4 almost equivalent to that of conventional
fluorocarbon chillers. After further improvement by 2013, the system is to be marketed as soon as
possible.
4.

Project is set up for Indonesia to convert to R32 for air conditioners.

The Government of Indonesia made a decision to adopt HFC (R32) as an alternative to HCFC (R22).
Having a lower GWP than R410, R32 is expected to have less effect on global warming. Unlike HC
refrigerants which are recommended by research institutes and NGOs of several countries, R32 is
free from serious accidents, such as flashing and explosion, when it is leaked. The Indonesian
Government plans to promote the use of R32 with the support of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) for refrigerant conversion.
According to their plan, Indonesia will complete the conversion to R32 by 2015. To facilitate the plan,
the Indonesian Government asked Japan for technical cooperation on the grounds that Japanesemanufacturers occupy a large share of the Indonesian market. In response to this request, theMinistry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan set up a conversion project incollaboration with such manufacturers as Daikin, Panasonic, Fujitsu General, Toshiba and Hitachi.
5.

RAC and PAC Domestic Shipments

The RAC shipments in July, August and September showed negative growth on a year-on-year basis.
However, this is attributed to the highest shipments ever recorded in the previous year. Compared tothe shipments in the usual years, they still remained high. Replacement demand forhigher-efficiency models due to awareness of power saving and the extreme summer heat most likely
contributed to the favorable result. PAC shipments were restored to pre-financial-crisis levels in2008. This is because investment in plant and equipment, which continued to be cut down after thefinancial crisis, has returned to normal.

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July 2011
units

※August 2011

Y on Yunits

basis %

Y on Ybasis %

September 2011units

Y on Ybasis %

RAC

1,506,207

92.7

646,501

76.4

431,237

87.4

PAC

87,401

109.0

67,61595.5

62,833101.4

RAC: Residential Air-conditioners

PAC: Commercial Air-conditioners

HVAC&R JAPAN 20122012. Feb.14 (tue.) to Feb.17 (fri.)
10:00 to17:00 (*16:00 on the last day)Tokyo Big Sight East Exhibition Hall 1,2
You can access here for more detailshttp://www.hvacr.jp/eng/index.html

Office: Kikai Shinko Bldg. 201. 3-5-8, Shibakoen, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0011, Japan
URL: http://www.jraia.or.jp

Contact: tajima@jraia.or.jp:kao224@jraia.or.jp

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