The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
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36 FEBRUARY 2017 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com A ccording to an AHR Expo and ASHRAE Journal survey sent to more than 1,400 HVACR manufac- turers worldwide, there is growing optimism for improving economic prospects in 2017. Based on survey results, 86% of the respondents expect their sales to grow in the coming year. AHR/ASHRAE Journal Survey: Growth Expected Across HVACR Industry The survey consisted of nine ques- tions, all in relation to anticipated overall market and individual business perfor- mance. Results were then compared to a similar survey sent in the fall of 2015, which gauged Show exhibitors' expecta- tions for 2016. "It is always interesting to see how trends across the exhibitor landscape continue to shift," said Clay Stevens, president of International Exposition Company. "We're pleased to note the increase in responses around anticipated business growth, as well as an increase in good and excellent outlook responses regarding a majority of the HVACR industry's various market segments. Combining these positive predictions with the fact that the 2017 AHR Expo [was] the largest held in the Show's 88-year history, we are anticipating a stellar year for business activity among exhibitors and attendees." When asked to rate prospects for business in 2017, 98% of survey par- ticipants indicated a positive outlook. Within these responses, 24% answered "excellent," representing nearly a 10% increase from 2016. Additionally, 54% responded "good" and 20% responded "fair," with only 2% rating prospects as "poor" for this year. Additionally, 86% of survey respon- dents said they expected their business to increase in 2017. Of these, 27% believed their business would increase by more than 10%, indicating a 6% jump from 2016. Respondents forecasting their business growth to be between 5% and 10% in 2017 increased 5% from 2016, to a total of 38%. Twenty-two percent of respondents indicated business growth of less than 5%, with 11% anticipating business activity to remain the same for 2017. With only 2% of respondents anticipating their business to decrease next year (compared to 8% surveyed in 2015), overall results showed a notable uptick in expected sales for 2017. In further qualifying sales perfor- mance, respondents were asked to share their comparative sales results between 2015 and 2016. Twenty-three percent of respondents indicated sales had increased significantly (by more than 10%), while 34% shared sales had increased somewhat (up to 10%) from 2015 to 2016. With 29% indicating their sales had stayed about the same, an additional 11% noted they had decreased somewhat (by less than 10%), and 3% indicated a sales decrease of more than 10%. Overall, when comparing these performance results to those anticipated for 2017, respondents generally seemed to feel they would perform as well as, if not better than, they did between 2015 and 2016. Thirty-eight percent of survey par- ticipants shared that maintenance and replacement applications would pro- vide the best prospects for business in 2017, representing a 10% increase from 2016 survey results. Retrofit and renova- tion applications, indicated by 32% of respondents as providing the best busi- ness prospects, decreased 10% from 2016. New construction held steady at 30%, in exact alignment with the response percentage from 2016's survey. Drilling down into anticipated o p p o r t u n i t y a c r o s s t h e H V A C R industry's various market segments, respondents were asked to rate their out- look for the following: residential; light commercial; heavy commercial; schools; non-school institutional; office build- ings; lodging; manufacturing/industrial; hospitals/healthcare; restaurants/hos- pitality; laboratories/cleanrooms; and