JEDDAH, 27 April 2003 — Saudi Arabia’s market for air conditioners is expected to be some 975,000 units in 2003 which is almost 50 percent of the consumption of the rest of the Gulf.
“The Kingdom’s market is growing at a rapid rate and is now targeted with air conditioners that are more environment-friendly,” a leading Korean manufacturer said yesterday. “In fact, our introduction of ‘Art-Cool’ air conditioners marks a new phase in the local air conditioning industry,” Moon B. Shin, president of LG Electronics for the Middle East & Africa Operations, told a press conference at Jeddah Inter.Continental Hotel yesterday. “Our engineers and designers have worked to produce the Art-Cool range that is both innovative and stylish aside from reaching amazing performance levels.”
The new range achieves three dimensional cooling by LG’s ‘Turbo fan.’ The fan helps to cool faster and more evenly by minimizing the temperature gap between the air above and below the unit and to the left and right sides. The normal wall-mounted air conditioner sends cool air through a one-way ventilator, thus its dead space of cooling is wider. Art-Cool overcomes this weakness with a ‘jet cooling’ function, providing faster and wider cooling. In addition, by one touch of the controls, the jet heating function gives warm air if needed.
“The new range of air conditioners is new in terms of technology and concept,” said Hassan G.I. Shaker of H.G. Ibrahim Shaker Company, the sole distributor of LG air conditioners in the Kingdom. “Our company achieved unprecedented sales results in the past eight years. Certain measures, including an offer of free service to our product users, turned out to be a rewarding experience,” Shaker said.
In yet another ‘first,’ LG is currently considering a built-in oxygen generator in air conditioners. The generator could take care of oxygen needs in a closed room according to Hwan-Yong Nho, executive vice president, air conditioning division, Digital Appliance Company from Korea.
The Korean manufacture of home appliances and electronics products held a dealers’ convention at which it exhibited a range of new products. These included linear static control type units in concealed type air conditioners in central air conditioning systems, claimed to be the world’s first; panel type air conditioners designed to look like interior decoration — the indoor unit seeming to be wall hanging. They are available in 18K and 24K BTU capacity in two different types — free standing of increased capacity units with 45K and 55K BTU and ceiling suspended air conditioners with high capacity models of 36K BTU and above. A new cassette type model with four-way airflow control is also being introduced in the Kingdom.