ARLINGTON, Va. - Combined U.S. factory shipments of 504,841 central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps for September jumped 12 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 129,485 were also up 29 percent compared to September 2002. Total shipments of 5,675,153 units for the first nine months of 2003 are even with those of last year.

Factory stocks for 2003 were up 24,803 units from August 2003 and up 62,286 units from September 2002. Distributor inventories for September 2003 were down 30,644 units from August 2003 and up 13,574 units from September 2002. September 2003 distributor shipments were up 18 percent from September 2002 with year-to-date shipments down 2 percent.