Eurovent Market Intelligence (EMI), the European Statistics Office for the HVAC&R market, has just published the results of its data collections on 2020 sales in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, based on data collected from a large number of manufacturers in the sector.
To mark this occasion, we interviewed the Eurovent Market Intelligence (EMI) team.
Yannick COTRELLE
Anaïs Hamon
Beyza Aykurt
How are the data collections for 2021 going?
Yannick Cotrelle: The 2021 collections have been a resounding success, with over 400 participants included, an all-time record for EMI. This represents an increase of 20% over the previous year! This growth is even more remarkable as it is consistent across all our programmes. One of our oldest programmes, the Rooftop units, which had a steady number of participants for several years, saw an increase from 17 to 25 participants. Air filters collection is another example, which gained 8 additional participants compared to 2020.
Anaïs Hamon: Manufacturers are showing exceptional interest in our data collections, which can be seen by the huge increase in participation as well as participants also sending in their data earlier in the year than previously. This demonstrates the real need for up-to-date and reliable market data, possibly accentuated by the uncertainty linked to Covid-19. Under these circumstances, our ability to provide results more quickly that are more representative than previous years has been appreciated by our participants.
Have you been able to develop your services in the context of the ongoing crisis?
Beyza Aykurt: Continuous improvement of our data collections is one of EMI’s core values. We have therefore made every effort to provide new services to our participants. We have, for example, developed the chilled beam programme on our website: participants can now view the results directly online with access to dynamic and interactive maps and graphs.
Another new development will be our very first mid-year collection, which will be launched at the beginning of July. Participants in the heat exchanger programme have informed us of their need for up-to-date data throughout the year, and so we have suggested the adoption of this new collection format. This experiment may inspire other programmes in the coming years.
Have you also launched new programmes?
Yannick Cotrelle: We have extended our market reach this year by launching three new data collections. There were 9 and 30 participants respectively in the data collections for water fan heaters and domestic heat pumps, launched in January of this year. This is a good start, especially for water fan heaters, with the collection already covering over 50% of the market on average, up to nearly 70% in the Nordic countries, and over 60% in France and Italy.
As for the refrigerated display cabinet programme, it was relaunched in July 2021 in a new format, as participants opted for quarterly data collections. In addition to the type of refrigerated display cabinet, the data collected also includes the refrigerant used and the EPREL energy efficiency index, this labelling now being mandatory for this type of product all over the European Union.
Last year, EMI published a qualitative study entitled “Covid-19 report”. Did you produce a similar report this year?
Anaïs Hamon: Given the high levels of uncertainty in the market and the needs of our participants for additional information, EMI produced its first qualitative study in 2020, surveying the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on the HVAC&R market. A range of market scenarios was examined in this report, providing detailed qualitative information that is not usually available from EMI data collections.
This study was received very favourably by our participants, who gave us very positive feedback. Given that the Covid-19 pandemic is unfortunately still ongoing, we think that it could be very helpful to perform another qualitative analysis of its impact. We are as such thinking of working on this report this summer so that we can send it out to participants in September.
What projects do you have lined up for 2022?
Beyza Aykurt: We cannot yet say for certain what data collections will be launched next January; however, several options are currently being examined in collaboration with the manufacturers. We are considering, for example, collecting data on certain HVAC components, such as valves (all types: one-way, ball, solenoid, expansion, etc.), filter dryers and pressure switches. This project is being driven by the market leaders, but every manufacturer is welcome to come on board.
A relaunch of the heat recovery systems programme is also being considered, including air processing units. This was put on hold for a few years, but the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic has made manufacturers again appreciate the necessity of understanding market trends, the manufacturers themselves have contacted us on this subject.
More generally speaking, we are happy to listen to any suggestions, so manufacturers are welcome to contact us if they would like to propose a new market intelligence programme to meet their needs!
We would also like to raise our visibility, which is why we have been working to increase our presence on LinkedIn. We use this platform to post our reports and the latest changes to our programmes, analyse market trends, give advice on how best to use the results of our data collections and post reminders about our meetings and events... In this period where it is complicated to participate in events and meetings in person, LinkedIn is a powerful tool for remaining connected with our participants.