THE industry must steel itself for an imminent rise in the price of air conditioning and refrigeration products and components as a result of escalating material costs, particularly copper.
Last month's announcement by Carrier of a price increase of up to 5% on all its equipment was just the tip of an iceberg which will see most if not all manufacturers pushing up prices this month.

'Since the beginning of 2006 the price of copper has doubled,' said Carrier's David Appel. 'With such record highs we have no other alternative than to adjust the prices to our customers,' added his colleague Patrick Protais.