Heating Newsletter February BRG News Austria Switzerland Asia UK Switzerland Belgium UK Germany Finland SOLARFOCUS's Expansion AFG's Financial Result STIEBEL ELTRON's Sales Heats Up SHARP's New Production Facility CONERGY Sells Solar Thermal Business ZEHNDER Sells Ventilation Installation Business DIMPLEX Forms Alliance with Electricity Generation CENTROTEC Achives 2010 Target ONNINEN's New Focus on Norwegian HVAC Market
1 SOLARFOCUS's Expansion 25th December 2010: The Austrian company SOLARFOCUS produce solar thermal collectors CPS and biomass boilers, which can be utilised with logs, pellets and woodchips under the THERMINATOR II brand which is expanding quickly accross Europe. The company is exporting to Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Croatia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Italy, Romania, Sweden, Hungary, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Repubic. The innovative biomass boiler THERMINATOR II enables its user to use whatever fuel they prefere. It is available as a pure logwood boiler, a woodchip/logwood boiler, or as a pellets/logwood boiler. - The downward firing combustion guarantees highest temperatures (between 1000 and 1200 C), lowest emissions, and a maximum of efficiency. The efficiencies vary from 92,8 % for the THERMINATOR logwood boiler until 95,4 % for the THERMINATOR pellet boiler. - The fully automatic heat exchanger cleaning system, patented by SOLARFOCUS, guarantees a constant heat exchange at a high level over many years. - The easy and intuitive boiler control ECOMANAGER takes care of the complete energy management of the house. Heating times are individually adjustable (main time, night time, lowering time). The large stainless steel filling space guarantees long burn-off times (4-6 hours, depending on the quality of logs), which makes the use of logwood also comfortable. The SOLARFOCUS s THERMINATOR combination boilers are available in the sizes 22kW, 30kW, 40kW, 49kW, and 60kW. Source: www.solarfocus.eu 2 AFG's Financial Result 25th January 2011: AFG AG, the international construction products and technology group, performed much better in 2010 than in the previous year. Consolidated net revenues were 2.1% higher than in 2009 at CHF 1,414 million. However, like many other manufacturers in Switzerland, AFG suffered from the strength of the Swiss franc. After adjusting for currency effects, net revenues increased by 5.8%, reflecting the substantial operational progress made by AFG. Overall, the solid economic conditions in the group's home markets of Switzerland and Germany shored up sales in the construction-related divisions, while the continuing weakness of the UK
market, which is also important to AFG, pulled back the division's sales performance. The Steel Technology Division returned to its former strength with net revenues climbing 13.1%; and the Surface Technology Division made up a third of the previous year's fall in income by posting a 17.1% (20.3% after currency adjustment) rise in net revenues. For the first time in several years, all of the company's divisions posted year-onyear increases in net revenues (after adjusting for currency effects). This is despite the fact that new residential construction in Germany an important segment for AFG only recovered slightly last year from the 50-year low recorded in 2009. Germany has the lowest new housing construction levels in Europe. The growth markets of Eastern Europe performed well, indicating that these countries have also made their way out of the economic crisis. In addition, the fact that higher input costs could only be passed on to customers to a limited extent, had an effect on profits as well as sales. The main casualty of the lack of new building in Germany was the Heating Technology and Sanitary Equipment Division, which saw revenues fall 3.9% to CHF 544.5 million ( 417.96 million), though in local currency terms it actually posted an increase of 3.3%. The continuing strength of the Swiss economy bolstered the division's positive performance, but the slow speed of British economic recovery and, in particular, the sluggish state of the UK residential construction sector pushed down revenues at UK subsidiary AQUALUX. However, the fall in revenues was smaller than last year's, which suggests that AQUALUX has reached the turnaround point. Source: AFG
3 STIEBEL ELTRON's Sales Heats Up in Asia 25 th January 2011: STIEBEL ELTRON, a leading German manufacturer of water heaters, will invest THB 15 million ( 354,678) to expand production capacity of its Thai plant by 15% this year to cater to increasing demand. Sales and marketing director Noppol Parsokdee said Thais considered water heaters to be part of the furniture. Thailand is the biggest water-heater market in Southeast Asia. STIEBEL ELTRON has been operating in Thailand for 30 years. Production started 10 years ago, replacing imports of the company's products from Germany. Today the company imports just 3,000 heat-pump products for hotel use per year. More than 70% of Thai-made products were sold domestically, with the rest exported. 90% of products from the Thai factory are water heaters. The rest are heat pumps, boilers and water filters. STIEBEL ELTRON'sbiggest export market is the Philippines, which last year received 20,000 water heaters. Hong Kong was the second-largest export market, with demand of 10,000 units last year. The company exported products to 37 countries last year, including Vietnam, China, Russia and states in the Middle East. In 2010, STIEBEL ELTRON sawrevenue of THB 1.4 billion ( 33 million) in the Asia- Pacific region. Revenue in Thailand alone was THB 458 million ( 10.8 million), with 150,000 units sold. The company is targeting sales of 165,000 units this year. The company plans to expand its Thai production line by 15% from 155,000 units to 180,000 units. Hoehn expects revenue in Thailand to grow by 10% this year. The company has set aside a marketing budget of THB 60 million ( 1.4 million), in line with last year. Source: The Nation (Thailand) 4 SHARP's New Production Facilities 27th January 2011: SHARP, Europe s largest solar panel manufacturer, is to create 300 new jobs at its European manufacturing plant in Wrexham, north Wales, in the United Kingdom. The new jobs follow the extension of production facilities at the factory and take the total number of employees from 800 to 1,100. SHARP has invested in excess of
over 20 million in the factory. Following this investment, SHARP will almost double its annual production capacity to 500MW per year by March 2011. An additional 3,000 panels will be produced each day growing from 5,000 to 8,000 once the expansion is complete. Source: Heating & Plumbing Monthly 5 CONERGY Sells Solar Thermal Business 17th December 2011: CONERGY AG is selling its Swiss solar thermal products business to private equity company CAPITAL STAGE AG. All shares in CONERGY S Swiss subsidiary CONERGY (SCHWEIZ) GMBH will be passed to CAPITAL STAGE. The solar thermal technology company will change name to HELVETIC SOLAR GMBH. Subject to fulfilling certain criteria, completion is expected in February 2011 at the latest. Further details of the transactions have not been disclosed. Source: www.renewableenergyfocus.com 6 ZEHNDER Sells Ventilation Installation Business 10 th January 2011: ZEHNDER GROUP, with international operations in the indoor climate sector (radiators and ventilation systems), has sold its ventilation installation business in Belgium, effective as of 31 December 2010 for an undisclosed sum. This is in line with the Group's overall strategy of focusing on the development, production, sale and service of indoor climate systems. It was agreed to keep the price confidential. The installation business in Belgium is located in Dendermonde and, with approx. 50 employees, generated about 7 million net sales in 2009. The spin-off of the installation business is a further step in ZEHNDER GROUP s strategy to focus its activities on development, production, sale and service of indoor climate systems (radiators and ventilation). ZEHNDER GROUP will continue with the sale and service of indoor climate systems in Belgium in a newly incorporated company. INTERDUCT GROUP, the new owner of the installation business, is based in the Netherlands and is active in various areas of the ventilation industry. It was agreed to keep the selling price confidential. Source: ZEHNDER GROUP
7 DIMPLEX Forms Alliance with Electricity Generator 4th January 2011:Electricity generator SSE (SCOTTISH AND SOUTHERN ENERGY PLC) has entered into a strategic agreement with DIMPLEX to develop and deploy systems and products that can support the decarbonisation of electrical heating. SSE and DIMPLEX plan to work together on: - developing systems for storing energy from the electricity grid in, for example, thermal storage heating devices or water heating devices; and - investment in, and the development and manufacture of, new heating products using new technologies. The companies expect to develop systems and products such as heat pumps "which can maximise the use of zero carbon electricity when it is available from technologies such as wind and solar photovoltaics and have the ability to store it for use during periods of peak demand". They also aim to invest in communication systems required to make these technologies work together to achieve the maximum energy efficiency. Source: HeatingandVentilation.net
8 CENTROTEC Achieves 2010 Targets 26 th January 2011: German solar thermal systems and energy-saving devices supplier CENTROTEC SUSTAINABLE AG published its preliminary figures for 2010. Giving preliminary figures, the company said the earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) have risen by around one-quarter and should reach the revised target of 36 million ($49 million) to 37 million. In 2009, EBIT amounted to 29 million. Revenue is seen at 480 million which is also in line with the forecast range of 480 million to 500 million. The growth in EBIT and revenue is due to the positive development in all company businesses, above all due to the expanded shares on the German heating market and the recovery in business abroad. In 2011, ENTROTEC projects EBIT increase by 11% to between 40 million and 42 million. Revenue should grow by 8% to between 520 million and 535 million. The company will publish its final figures for 2010 on March 29. Source: ADP News
9 ONNINEN s New Focus on Norwegian HVAC Market 14 th January 2011: It has now been confirmed that ONNINEN will get fully involved in Norway s heating and plumbing market by the summer, which will increase competition for the three leading wholesalers BRØDRENE DAHL, AHLSELL and HEIDENREICH. Up until now, Finish ONNINEN focused on electrical wholesaling to businesses, industry and offshore. According to Per Erik Strand, ONNINEN s new product division director, 50% of their turnover in Sweden and Finland is already HVAC and plumbing related. Following their acquisition of EILAG, the company focused on establishing itself in the electrical market first. ONNINEN resides in new offices and warehouses in Skedsmo. They employ 380 people in Norway and have a turnover of 257.8 million in this market. Source: Byggaktuelt