Chilean air conditioning market

The Chilean HVAC market hovers around the USD 100 million mark.
The Chilean HVAC market is not very large and hovers around the USD 100 million mark. Of course, there are some exceptional projects such as the Costanera Center, the tallest building in South America which is 300 meters high, and these huge projects distorted the market figures 2014-2015.

The government of Chile has proposed or approved new legislation that has resulted in a freezing of many new investments in 2015, which in turn has hindered growth. Consequently growth has fallen from over 4% (2010-2014) to less than 2% today.

On the positive side, however, the average temperature is rising, and thus sales of residential air conditioners are growing, partially offsetting decreases in major projects.
Given these factors, the overall market is expected to remain stable or decrease somewhat compared with previous typical years, but with changes in the product mix: more small products, fewer variable refrigerant flow (VRF) installations, and offset partially by non-inverter or inverter chillers.

The market share of VRF systems has dropped by 50% to about 10% of total market.

Now , practically all products on sale operate on R410A, shifted from R22. There is also growing interest in replacing HCFCs with more environmentally friendly refrigerants, in line with government policy.

Source: JARN, June 2016