The Federation of German Heating Industry (BDH) has announced publishing its annual report. The 100 companies organized in the BDH generated total worldwide sales of 14.5 billion euros in 2017.
This corresponds to an increase of around four percent when compared to the previous year. Research and development (R&D) costs of 608 million euros were slightly below the previous year's record of 640 million euros.
High expenditure on R&D
The high expenditure on research and development is proof of the innovative strength of the heating industry"
“The high expenditure on research and development is proof of the innovative strength of the heating industry,” said the Federation of German Heating Industry (BDH) President, Manfred Greis. The number of employees in the BDH member companies worldwide was 73,800, a slight increase of 2.6 percent from the previous year.
With a total of 712,000 heat generators sold and a sales increase of 3 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, the industry can look back on a successful year in the German market.
High sales for gas condensing technology, heat pumps
“This positive development is due to the dynamic new construction business. The modernization is still running at a snail's pace. With a view to the 2030 climate targets, the modernization rate must now be increased significantly,” explains BDH Managing Director, Andreas Lücke.
The largest share of total sales was accounted for by gas condensing technology with 472,500 units sold and an increase of 4 percent. For the first time, the heat pump is the second most popular technology, with 78,000 units sold and a whopping 17 percent increase. The reason for this is also the positive development in the new building.
Renewable energies development
In contrast, the development of the other technologies based on renewable energies was not satisfactory. With 26,500 heat generators sold, wood boilers recorded an overall minus of 8 percent. The solar thermal closed with a minus of 16 percent. This corresponds to around 78,000 newly installed systems and a collector area of 625,500 sq. meters.