The air-conditioner industry’s consumption is at risk, as it accounts for a substantial chunk of global copper demand. Osaka headquartered Japanese multinational air conditioning manufacturing company Daikin Industries, world’s top equipment producer, plans to replace half of the copper in its units with aluminium by 2025. Daikin's spokesperson said “Since 2013, Daikin has used aluminium in some machines and plans to accelerate the shift given surging copper costs. It currently uses about 90,000 tonnes of copper a year, and makes more than 10% of the world's aircon.”However, in China, a state researcher is working with the country's top home-appliances groups on utilising more aluminium. Song Jingxue, Director at the China Household Electric Appliance Research Institute, said: "The surge in commodity prices, copper, in particular, is increasing cost pressures on air-conditioner manufacturers. They can hardly pass that to consumers given low product differentiation, so many of them are considering aluminium as a cheaper option."
The air-conditioner industry’s consumption is at risk, as it accounts for a substantial chunk of global copper demand. Osaka headquartered Japanese multinational air conditioning manufacturing company Daikin Industries, world’s top equipment producer, plans to replace half of the copper in its units with aluminium by 2025. Daikin's spokesperson said “Since 2013, Daikin has used aluminium in some machines and plans to accelerate the shift given surging copper costs. It currently uses about 90,000 tonnes of copper a year, and makes more than 10% of the world's aircon.”However, in China, a state researcher is working with the country's top home-appliances groups on utilising more aluminium. Song Jingxue, Director at the China Household Electric Appliance Research Institute, said: "The surge in commodity prices, copper, in particular, is increasing cost pressures on air-conditioner manufacturers. They can hardly pass that to consumers given low product differentiation, so many of them are considering aluminium as a cheaper option."
