ARLINGTON, Va. — Combined U.S. factory shipments of 761,032 central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps for May were down 10 percent compared to shipments from the same month last year, according to statistics from the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI).
Heat pump shipments of 159,599 were also down 8 percent compared to May 2003. Total shipments for the first five months of 2003 are down 4 percent from those of last year.