LG pins its hopes on ‘green’ cooling

LG Electronics Co., the world’s top manufacturer of home air conditioners, has announced plans to boost its global presence with a new, environmentally friendly lineup of air conditioning systems. At its main office in Yeouido yesterday, LG unveiled its new Whisen air conditioning system, which is to go on sale next year. Designed mainly for big, commercial buildings, the new system connects several air conditioning units to a single ventilator unit, meaning it takes up a lot less space. In a press release, the company also stressed that the new system uses less energy and is installed with a new environmentally friendly refrigerant. Lee Yeong-ha, vice president of the digital appliance division, said, “Only consumer companies that offer ‘green’ products can thrive in the future. The new system is part of our aim to become the world’s No. 1 maker of air conditioning systems by 2010.” U.S.-based Carrier and Japan’s Daikin are currently the two largest players in the global market for large air conditioning systems, which is worth around $21 billion a year. LG said it expects this figure to grow to $29 billion in 2010. By increasing the share of its sales from large air conditioning systems from 20 percent to almost half, LG hopes to increase revenue from such systems from the current $600 million to $3.5 billion by the decade’s end. In order to do this, the company will almost double its team of researchers by 2008 and invest about 10 percent of all sales revenue from air conditioners into research and development. Additional production bases will be set up in Turkey, Brazil, China and India. by Seo Ji-eun, Kim Chang-woo