USA – The Air-conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) have released the latest figures for the US shipments of heating and cooling equipment for the month of June. The latest data delivers mixed results for the industry, with no discernible general trend obvious for retailers.

The data shows that U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for June 2016 decreased by 12.5% to 361,674 units, a significant drop from the 413,536 units that were shipped in June 2015. This disappointing figure means that, for the year-to-date, U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters have decreased by 12.3% to 2,152,855, compared to the 2,453,831 units that were shipped over the same period in 2015.

Shipments of residential electric storage water heaters did however increase by 7.5% in June 2016 to 346,193 units, a marked increase on the 322,059 units that had been shipped in June 2015. Despite this positive result in June however, residential electric storage water heater shipments have decreased by 13.0% for the year-to-date to 2,012,123 units, in comparison with the 2,313,209 units that were shipped during the same period in 2015.

Meanwhile, commercial gas storage water heater shipments recorded an increase of 11.2% in June 2016 to 8,377 units, an improvement on the 7,535 units shipped in June 2015. This increase is welcome news for the industry as it means that the year-to-date U.S. shipments of commercial gas storage water heaters have now dropped by only 3.1% to 51,302 units, compared with 52,928 units shipped during the same period in 2015.

Even better news came in the form of commercial electric storage water heaters, whose shipments increased by a whopping 57.1% in June 2016 to 11,697 units, a huge increase on the 7,444 units shipped in June 2015. Consequently, the year-to-date shipments of commercial electric storage water heaters has now increased by 46.9 % to 62,775 units, markedly better than the 42,733 units shipped over the same period in 2015.

In further positive news for the industry, U.S. shipments of gas warm air furnaces for June 2016 rose by 6.9 % to 274,953 units, an increase on the 257,321 units shipped in June 2015. As a result, the year-to-date U.S. shipments of gas warm air furnaces have now increased by 5.5 % to 1,289,146 units, compared to the 1,221,416 units that had been shipped during the same period in 2015.

However, oil warm air furnace shipments dropped by 0.5 % to 2,121 units in June 2016, a slight decrease on the 2,131 units shipped in June 2015. This result conforms to the general trend for the year-to-date U.S. shipments of oil warm air furnaces as shipments have decreased by 6.6 % to 13,171 units, whereas 14,108 units were shipped over the same period in 2015.

The combined total of U.S. shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps reached 1,022,363 units in June 2016, a 16.4 % increase on the 878,513 units shipped in June 2015. This result means that the figure for the year-to-date combined shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps has increased by 1.8 % to 3,989,465 units, up from the 3,920,763 units that had been shipped over the equivalent period in 2015.

Breaking this combined total down shows that U.S. shipments of air conditioners rose by 19.1 % to 729,018 units, a significant increase on the 611,900 units shipped in June 2015. This positive result for June was largely responsible for the 3.6% increase in year-to-date shipments of central air conditioners, giving a total of 2,681,694 units, up from the 2,588,401 units that had been shipped over the same period in 2015.

Meanwhile, U.S. shipments of air-source heat pumps increased by 10.0 % for a total of 293,345 units compared to the 266,613 units shipped in June 2015. Despite this improved performance in June, the year-to-date total for heat pump shipments decreased by 1.8 % to 1,307,771 units, a 1,332, slight drop on the 362 units shipped over the same period in 2015.