Danfoss hosted its 27th annual press breakfast at the AHR Expo, offering insights into the current and future state of the company, as well as the HVACR industry. Rick Sporrer, president of Danfoss North America, noted that 2022 was a very challenging and rewarding year.
“Like many companies at the end of 2021, we saw our business start to take off and there was a rapid increase in customer demand,” said Sporrer. “That really challenged our supply chain, our logistics, and our internal manufacturing teams. And working together, our teams were able to grow our business by over 20% in North America in 2022. So that made it a very rewarding year.”
Some of the highlights of 2022 included Danfoss expanding its range of condensing units, as well as forming Semikron Danfoss, which provides technology leadership in the innovation and the application of power electronics modules, said Sporrer. In addition, Danfoss expanded its application development center capabilities and demonstrated its commitment to the industry by investing in and acquiring a company focusing on low-GWP refrigerants, Bock compressors.
“As we look ahead to 2023, we certainly have an eye on the headwinds that exist in the industry -- inflation rates, interest rates, and the pressure that's going to put on the economy in North America,” said Sporrer. “But as I stand here today, I can share with you that we had a very, very strong January. And our customers continue to place their confidence in Danfoss technologies by placing orders with us, again, at increasing rates. Our forecast right now, as we look at our order board through the first quarter and into the second quarter, remains very strong. And our overall forecast is one of the growth for 2023 in North America, although maybe a more modest rate than we experienced in 2022.”
Sporrer also announced the localization of a portion of Danfoss’ scroll compressor portfolio, along with a portion of its pressure and temperature sensing portfolio, in the Americas in 2023. “That's again, a commitment to our customers, to be a local supplier, to be their best technology partner in the industry in North America,” he said.
Danfoss is also focused on energy efficiency, which is an important part of the decarbonization and electrification trend. According to the International Energy Agency, the quickest and most effective path to emission reductions is more efficient use of energy, and Danfoss could not agree more, said Sporrer.
“Addressing energy efficiency really provides multiple benefits, and the obvious one is reducing carbon emissions,” he said. “But it also reduces the energy bills for both homes and businesses, and it creates jobs. We know that a little less than 40% of the total energy consumption in North America and greenhouse gas emissions are associated with buildings. That's why our core business strategy is really providing energy-efficient technologies that can be applied to buildings.”
However, with only about 2% of the commercial building stock in North America being replaced each year, increasing energy efficiency and lowering carbon emissions really means retrofitting existing buildings with proven solutions that are both feasible and scalable, said Sporrer.
“And the great news is Danfoss does have proven technologies — under deployed technologies at this point — that can have a significant impact on our energy usage in the short term, and those technologies that pave the way for future innovations,” he said.
