ARLINGTON, Va. — The Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) announced that combined U.S. factory shipments of 642,560 central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps for April dropped 9 percent compared to shipments from the same month last year, while heat pump shipments of 136,146 were down 13 percent compared to last April. ARI also announced that shipments for the first four months of 2003 are down 1 percent compared to last year.

April 2003 factory stocks were down 6,044 units from March 2003 and up 70,880 units from April 2002. Distributor inventories for April 2003 were up 38,251 units from March 2003 and down 48,629 units from April 2002. Distributor shipments were down 12 percent from April 2002 with year-to-date shipments down 7 percent.

Publication date: 06/09/2003