In 2024, the global HVAC market reached approximately USD 310.6 billion, with demand continuing to rise as heat, urban growth, and electrification reshape building systems worldwide. For air conditioning equipment manufacturers, Eurasia is becoming a practical growth route, not a “nice-to-have”. Cooling demand is also putting pressure on grids, with the IEA describing space cooling as the fastest-growing source of energy demand in buildings, rising by almost 4% annually to 2035 under today’s policy settings. The result is a manufacturing landscape moving quickly towards cleaner refrigerants, tighter efficiency requirements, and smarter controls.

Why Eurasia Is the Manufacturing Battleground Buyers Are Watching

Across the CIS and wider Eurasian region, buyers are balancing three non-negotiables: compliance, operating cost, and availability. This is not limited to comfort cooling. Cold storage build-outs, pharma distribution, and food logistics are driving demand for industrial refrigeration capacity, supported by global cold-chain expansion (projected at USD 393.2 billion in 2025 in one widely cited outlook). At the same time, commercial construction, industrial retrofits, and public-sector upgrades are bringing new demand for dependable systems that can be serviced locally.

For international brands and regional OEMs alike, the question is shifting from “Is there demand?” to “What will buyers require next, and how fast can product lines adapt?”

Four Shifts Reshaping Manufacturing Decisions

Instead of a single disruption, manufacturing in Eurasia is being shaped by a small number of structural shifts that already influence specifications, procurement decisions, and product roadmaps.

For manufacturers planning regional expansion or portfolio updates, understanding how these forces intersect is essential. 

The four shifts below reflect what buyers, regulators, and distributors are actively prioritising today, and where competitive advantage is being created for suppliers that can respond early.

1) Refrigerants are becoming a procurement filter, not a technical footnote

Policy is accelerating the move away from high-GWP refrigerants. In the EU, F-Gas Regulation (EU) 2024/573 was adopted on 7 February 2024 and applies from 11 March 2024, tightening controls on fluorinated gases and equipment that relies on them. Separately, the UNEP Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol targets a global phase-down of HFCs, with UNEP highlighting its potential to avoid up to 0.5°C of warming by 2100.

Even where local rules differ, multinational projects, export ambitions, and insurer requirements increasingly align Eurasian specifications with these benchmarks. Manufacturers that can offer credible low-GWP portfolios (and documented service readiness) reduce friction in the sales cycle.

2) Energy efficiency is moving upstream into component choices

Rising electricity demand and grid constraints are pushing specifiers towards systems that do more with less. That shows up in higher minimum-efficiency requirements, better part-load performance, and a stronger business case for inverter-driven systems, heat recovery, and controls that respond to occupancy and weather data.

For manufacturers, this is not only about meeting a label requirement. It affects compressor selection, heat exchanger design, fan power, control logic, and the ability to demonstrate performance under real operating conditions.

3) Indoor air quality is a budget line item again

Investment in indoor environmental quality is expanding beyond hospitals and labs into offices, education, and mixed-use developments. ASHRAE points to Standards 62.1 and 62.2 as recognised references for minimum ventilation rates and acceptable indoor air quality. In terms of energy performance, ASHRAE 90.1 remains a widely used benchmark for energy-efficient building design, including mechanical systems. In Europe, REHVA has also published model guidance that aligns indoor environmental quality requirements with the 2024 EPBD recast.

This is where product categories increasingly converge: controls, filtration, heat recovery, sensors, and commissioning tools. It also changes partnership dynamics, increasing the importance of ventilation equipment suppliers that can support design intent and compliance documentation within a single workflow.

4) Localisation, serviceability, and parts availability are shaping wins

Eurasian buyers increasingly reward suppliers that can demonstrate local spares availability, training, and predictable lead times. That drives manufacturing decisions around platform standardisation, modularity, and dual sourcing. It also increases the value of products designed for field repair, with clearer fault codes, replaceable boards, and robust documentation.

Why Airvent Is Where These Decisions Get Made

For companies evaluating Eurasian expansion, the practical advantage of a focused trade platform is decision speed. AIRVent brings manufacturers and buyers into the same room to compare specifications, validate supplier capability, and move from early interest to qualified discussions.

For exhibitors planning pipeline creation, the most effective approach is a live product narrative tied to compliance and operating cost. A well-prepared AIRVent expo enquiry should include target sectors (comfort cooling, industrial, cold chain), priority buyers (distributors, contractors, end users), and the proof points needed for local specification.

AIRVent is also a working environment for first-time market entrants: it functions as an air conditioning exhibition, where product demonstrations, partner selection, and distributor conversations occur in parallel, and as an HVAC exhibition, where cross-category system decisions are made around whole-building performance.

Register now to explore cutting-edge HVACR solutions and use the exhibitor list to plan targeted meetings with manufacturers, distributors, and technical specialists.