TRANE: Moderate growth on HVAC segment, forecasted for the next interval

In the past four years, the construction sector was heavily influenced in Romania by a significant decrease of the foreign direct investment. Although the public authorities have allocated some funds for infrastructure works, the activity on the industrial, residential or commercial segments is far from providing a positive sign for the companies. Despite the big fluctuations in the analyzed market during the recession, TRANE Romania managed to keep its turnover at a constant level. In the first part of the year, the local subsidiary recorded a 30% performance growth of the turnover, although the initial assessments were more pessimistic. The predictions for 2014 include a moderate increase of the revenues, situated around 15%. Also, the management team subsidiary in Bucharest relies in particular on increasing the share of service activities in the turnover structure. In spite of the current economic climate, which seems to outline the beginning of the revival of demand in the construction sector, including the HVAC segment, on short term it is expected that the average growth rate of sales that has been recorded in recent months to mitigate significantly. In this regard, Anca Nichitov, the general manager of Trane Romania, pointed out that "achievements in 2013 are at a much higher rate than the targets set by the marketing plan and, therefore, it is reasonable to predict a decrease in the results for the second part of the year. Our evaluations are based mainly on the fact that the number of projects on the agenda of Romanian architectural offices is quite small. Given this fact, in the short term a strong upward trend will not be possible, and in 2014 the growth will be, at most, moderate. By the end of 2013, we expect the EU legislative bodies to adopt significant changes to the rules governing companies active in the HVAC domain. In time, we hope that the industry competitors will adapt to legislation changes and will clarify the steps need to be followed in order to respect the new rules".