삼중테크

What prompted you to visit China Refrigeration?

China Refrigeration is Asia’s largest heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration exhibition. It offers an opportunity to see the technological direction of global companies and local Chinese manufacturers in one place.

I focused on the growth of the data center (DC) cooling market, the maturity of Chinese manufacturers’ equipment and their ability to produce components independently, and the evolution of solutions that address industrial waste heat utilization and low-carbon requirements. These factors are closely linked to the Korean market, making the visit particularly valuable.

With absorption chillers and non-electric, heat-driven equipment as its core products, SAMJUNG TECH placed particular emphasis on assessing its position and defining its future strategy in a market where electric equipment is expanding rapidly. The visit therefore centered on market research and a strategic review: identifying areas that require a response and those in which we can establish a position ahead of the market.

What global trends and issues stood out during your visit?

The considerable increase in interest in DC cooling stood out. DC cooling is moving beyond conventional building air conditioning and emerging as a distinct industry focused on high reliability, high efficiency and high-density cooling.

The rapid rise of Chinese manufacturers was also striking. While major global brands had led exhibitions in the past, local Chinese companies strengthened their presence this time by showcasing large equipment and core components of their own. Their active display of key equipment—including centrifugal chillers, compressors, air-cooled screw chillers and CDUs—demonstrated confidence in their supply chains and manufacturing capabilities.

Another trend was the growing market for electric heat pumps, particularly high-temperature industrial heat pumps. Midea and GREE actively presented solutions that produce high-temperature hot water and steam using centrifugal and screw heat pumps. This showed how rapidly electric equipment is being commercialized as demands for carbon reduction and energy savings intensify across industry.

It is also important to recognize that this does not signify a contraction in non-electric technologies. Depending on the power infrastructure, available on-site heat sources, operating costs and installation size, absorption or waste heat recovery systems still offer advantages in certain applications. The market is likely to develop toward a structure in which electric and non-electric technologies share roles according to site conditions, rather than converge on a single approach.

Which product attracted your closest attention?

A hybrid absorption–electric chiller from Company M. Beyond being a new product, it illustrates the future direction of industrial air conditioning and specialized cooling markets.

The proposed configuration uses waste heat and electricity together: the absorption system handles the base load, while an electric compressor meets additional demand when required. At actual sites, neither heat sources nor loads remain constant; they vary considerably by season and time of day. Using a single technology to accommodate every condition can result in larger equipment or higher operating costs.

A hybrid system, by contrast, can handle the base load with a relatively inexpensive heat source and use electric equipment for peak loads or lower-temperature applications, achieving both operating flexibility and efficiency.

SAMJUNG TECH is also paying attention to this trend. Given our strengths in absorption technology, we need to consider directions such as integration with supplementary electric systems, expansion into lower-temperature applications and improved load responsiveness, in line with future customer requirements.

Which systems could be introduced into the Korean market?

Packaged cooling solutions for DCs. At this exhibition, a notable approach was to propose integrated systems combining CDUs, dry coolers, chillers and FWUs. As AI infrastructure and DC investment expand in Korea, proposals at the system level are likely to become increasingly important, moving beyond the supply of individual pieces of equipment.

Other promising areas are high-temperature heat pumps that recover industrial waste heat and hybrid refrigeration systems. Recovering waste heat from factories to produce not only chilled water but also hot water and steam is an approach that could attract interest from Korean manufacturers. However, implementation requires a customized design that comprehensively considers each site’s heat source temperature, flow rate, operating hours and process characteristics, rather than simply installing equipment.

In this context, the fuel cell–integrated systems and waste heat recovery cooling (WHRC) technology developed by SAMJUNG TECH are significant. In Korea, electricity tariffs, city gas, process heat and the burden of peak electricity demand interact in complex ways. A configuration that integrates power generation with cooling utilization can therefore be economically viable.

How competitive is Korean technology compared with the exhibited products, and what needs improvement?

The strengths of Korean technology lie in its ability to respond to site-specific requirements and in dependable quality. For industrial equipment in particular, stable operation after installation and ease of maintenance matter more than catalog performance. Experience accumulated at actual sites therefore provides a competitive advantage. In this respect, Korean companies retain strengths in customer support and after-sales service.

However, broader product lineups are needed. Overseas companies, particularly Chinese manufacturers, showcased a wide range of products extending beyond chillers and heat pumps to CDUs and control platforms. Responding to digital transformation is another challenge. Beyond simply supplying equipment, it is becoming increasingly important to propose solutions that incorporate digital functions such as monitoring based on operating data, energy analysis and integrated control.

Packaging and modularization are also necessary. Solutions need to be standardized into formats that customers can readily understand and implement.

What distinguishes SAMJUNG TECH’s core products from those exhibited, and where do their competitive strengths lie?

Our strength is the ability to turn industrial waste heat and process heat into practical business opportunities. Although many large electric systems and packaged DC solutions were introduced at the exhibition, the same solution cannot be applied to every site. Competitiveness depends on how well a supplier understands a customer’s heat source configuration and energy cost structure.

Absorption chillers, SAMJUNG TECH’s core products, have an advantage in their ability to efficiently utilize waste heat and rejected heat. They can reduce dependence on electricity while enabling integrated designs for air conditioning, process cooling and heat recovery according to site conditions. This makes them well suited to optimizing the entire energy system, beyond competition between individual pieces of equipment.

In particular, fuel cell–integrated cooling utilization and waste heat–based WHRC technology provide distinctive competitive advantages even when compared with the exhibited products. We can propose a single framework encompassing heat source generation, heat recovery, cooling production and operating cost reduction.

Customers are likely to consider investment payback periods and operating efficiency alongside product performance. SAMJUNG TECH therefore stands out through its economic value and system design capabilities, beyond competition over individual functions.

What direction should SAMJUNG TECH take going forward?

We should expand into industrial energy solutions while maintaining our strengths in absorption technology. We need a packaged approach that goes beyond selling individual pieces of equipment to encompass assessments of waste heat from customers’ processes, economic analysis, integrated cooling and heating design, controls and operational support.

We also need to develop fuel cell–integrated systems and waste heat–based WHRC into clearly defined strategic businesses. Korean industry faces simultaneous demands to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency. Under these conditions, a model integrating power generation, heat recovery and cooling production can be competitive. Its distinctive advantage is the ability to address peak electricity demand, gas utilization, process stability and ESG requirements together.

A differentiated approach is also needed for new markets such as DCs. Rather than simply following the trend toward electric equipment, we should offer alternatives based on waste heat utilization, hybrid systems, reliable emergency operation and site-specific economic analysis.

We must also strengthen how we present our products and proposals. It is important to improve modular packages, standardized proposals, performance simulations, digital monitoring and maintenance frameworks so that customers can understand our solutions easily and make decisions quickly.

Is there anything you would like to add?

This visit to China Refrigeration confirmed that the criteria for competition in the refrigeration and air-conditioning market are changing. In the past, equipment efficiency and price were the main factors. Today, the market is shifting toward comprehensive consideration of carbon reduction, electricity consumption, waste heat recovery, data-driven operation and the economics of the entire system. As the market environment becomes more complex, companies also need a multifaceted response.

SAMJUNG TECH has a foundation for securing competitiveness amid these changes. We have technological expertise centered on absorption and non-electric, heat-driven equipment, together with an understanding of industrial sites. By developing next-generation models such as fuel cell–integrated systems and waste heat–based WHRC into concrete offerings, we expect to be able to create opportunities in new areas beyond our existing markets.

Future competition will depend on how precisely we solve customers’ energy problems, rather than the size of the equipment. SAMJUNG TECH will move in this direction, and this exhibition reaffirmed the need to do so.