Japan's Daikin to build $320 mln heat pump factory in Poland (updated)

Daikin Industries

07/07/2022 12:13

(Adds background, quotes)
    WARSAW, July 7 (Reuters) - Japanese air-conditioning systems
and heat pump maker Daikin  6367.T  will invest 1.5 billion
zlotys ($320 million) to build a heat pump factory in central
Poland, the Polish prime minister's office said on Thursday.
    Sources had told Reuters on Wednesday that the Japanese
company was planning to make the investment.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2YN2B4
    Demand for heat pumps - which rely on electricity to
transfer heat - has been booming in Europe amid soaring gas
prices, with consumers waiting months for heat pump
installations.
    "To meet the huge demand for heat pumps, we want to increase
our production capacity, which is why Daikin Europe has decided
to build a factory in Poland," Masatsugu Minaka, chairman of the
board of Daikin Europe, told a news conference. "The plant will
employ 1,000 people by 2025."
    Development and Technology Minister Waldemar Buda said:
"These are jobs with the latest technology, with devices that
are gaining great popularity in the world, and also in Poland."
    The plant will be built in Ksawerow, which is situated in
the Lodz special economic zone in central Poland, and the prime
minister's office described it as "the largest investment by a
foreign company in Poland in recent years". 
    In Poland, the number of heat pump devices to heat houses
nearly doubled last year to more than 79,000 units.
     Heat pumps, sometimes described as reverse air
conditioners, use electricity to concentrate heat potential and
are comparatively more energy efficient than gas boilers.
    The European Commission in May unveiled a 210 billion euro 
($214.05 billion) plan for Europe to end its reliance on Russian
fossil fuels by 2027, and to use the move away from Moscow to
speed up a transition to green energy.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2XA0MW
    Those investments include 56 billion euros for energy
savings and heat pumps.
    Meeting the plan's targets would require around 20 million
heat pumps to be installed in the EU by 2026 and nearly 60
million by 2030, according to the European Heat Pump
Association.


($1 = 4.6824 zlotys)


($1 = 0.9811 euros)

 (Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz and Alan Charlish. Editing by
Jane Merriman)
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