FIELD RESEARCH AT THE HEAT PUMP TRADE FAIR
On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to travel to Frankfurt for the ISH trade fair to investigate the vibe in the heat pump market. My interest in the sector was sparked earlier by Energy Save, which I have chosen as my horse in this race (at least for now), as previously mentioned in this thread. This industry is undergoing an interesting transition anyway.
I haven’t visited this fair before, so I have no point of comparison, but generally, there seemed to be a real buzz. At times, I had to wonder if it was a technical trade fair or a festival. Music was blasting and beer was flowing.
I had a few hours to look around the site. Another active “field researcher” from the forum had visited the fair the previous day, so I had already received good background information through them.
The general view was that things are moving fast. Demand exceeds what can be shipped from the factories. Lead times for the big players are 6–12 months. Nibe said they are opening a new factory in Sweden in the summer, and Viessmann’s expansions will be operational in the autumn. The high demand is evidenced by the fact that new players have entered the market, especially from China, who seemed to have at least partially fewer production issues.
An interesting comment was that production in Europe was said to be even cheaper than in China. This is due to the high level of production automation. It was also a fairly common comment that there aren’t huge differences between the products themselves, as everyone mainly uses the same components.
One that stood out slightly here was the unlisted Swedish company Qvantum, which has managed to poach designers from NIBE and given them a free hand to create their own product. Qvantum is backed by some heavyweight investors from IKEA and EQT.
A little tidbit about Nibe: they were serving Fazer chocolate at their stand. I made a point of wondering about it out loud.
The general driver in the industry seems to be the EU’s energy policy decisions, more information on which can be found on the EHPA website. It just feels like they are pressing the gas and the brake at the same time. On one hand, they want to boost the industry, but at the same time, they are imposing restrictions on refrigerants. This development might give a competitive advantage to the cleverest players.
One example of those who have jumped on the bandwagon was EC Power, Energy Save’s new partner in Germany. They are a traditional company selling hydronic solutions based on gas and oil burners, but now even they have switched to air-to-water heat pumps.
Oilon from Finland was present, a new acquaintance for me. They provide, for example, ground-source heating solutions as well as other heat pumps and burners for industry. It looks like Copenhagen Airport is one of their references.
