US energy management firm eyes data centres as China property downturn hits profit

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Johnson Controls, which provides energy management services for buildings, said it will continue to invest in manufacturing facilities in China to meet demand from data centres

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George Oliver, Global CEO and Chairman of Johnson Controls, photographed in Cyberport. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Eric Ng

Published: 8:00am, 16 Jul 2024Updated: 9:17am, 16 Jul 2024

Johnson Controls International, an American company that provides energy management products and services for buildings, said it will continue to invest in manufacturing facilities in China to meet demand from high-growth sectors like data centres, even as a protracted property downturn has dented sales.

“We are spending multimillion dollars on a yearly basis to upgrade our facilities so that we will have the capacity to make the products in China for the China market, for instance data centres,” George Oliver, CEO and chairman of Johnson Controls, said in an interview.

“We are constantly reinvesting and automating our facilities to capitalise on the current market trends and enhance overall efficiency.”

Johnson Controls, which is listed in New York and has its headquarters in Ireland, serves customers in over 150 nations. It designs, produces, installs and retrofits products, software and services to regulate the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, industrial refrigeration systems, and security and fire-detection systems in both commercial and residential buildings. It has 10 production plants and three research and development centres in China.

With the proliferation of artificial intelligence across a wide range of industries, demand for data storage in different countries is projected to rise between 20 and 50 per cent annually in the next few years, Oliver noted.

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Inside a Chinese factory that makes humanoid robots with enhanced facial movements

He was in Hong Kong having travelled to Japan and China for client and internal meetings last week.

US energy management firm eyes data centres as China property downturn hits profit

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Johnson Controls, which provides energy management services for buildings, said it will continue to invest in manufacturing facilities in China to meet demand from data centres

Johnson Controls, which provides energy management services for buildings, said it will continue to invest in manufacturing facilities in China to meet demand from data centres