ARLINGTON, Va. — Combined U.S. factory shipments of 642,560 central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps for April dropped 9 percent compared to shipments from the same month last year, according to Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) statistics. Shipments of 2,159,338 units for the first four months of 2003 are down 1 percent compared to last year.
Heat pump shipments for April of 136,146 units were down 13 percent compared to last April. The year-to-date total of 519,989 is up 3 percent from January-April 2002.