Daikin Industries Ltd. and American Standard Companies Inc. recently announced that Daikin's Air Conditioning Division and Trane (La Crosse, WI), American Standard's Air Conditioning Division, have agreed to form a comprehensive global strategic alliance to source and sell each other's products.

Building on each other's product, brand, geographic and distribution strengths, the alliance will enable Daikin (Osaka, Japan) and Trane to increase their market opportunities in eight major regions around the world, serving their respective customers with broader product offerings while minimizing costs and risk. Each company will focus on its own areas of expertise and capitalize on the other's complementary capabilities. Through the alliance, the companies will be able to provide their own customers a complete line of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (hvac) products, services and solutions for industrial, commercial and residential markets.