ARLINGTON, Va. — Combined U.S. factory shipments of 682,810 central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps for July were down 1 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 147,634 were up 15 percent compared to July 2002. Total shipments for the first seven months of 2003 were down 1 percent from the same time period last year.

July 2003 factory stocks were down 44,916 units from June 2003 and up 70,071 units from July 2002. Distributor inventories for July 2003 were down 109,111 units from June 2003 and up 104,855 units from July 2002. Distributor shipments for July 2003 were up 2 percent from July 2002 with year-to-date shipments down 6 percent.