South Korea Scroll and Absorption Chillers Market Size, Share, Growth, and Industry Analysis, By Chiller Type (Scroll Chillers, Absorption Chillers), By Cooling Capacity (100-500 kW, 501-1,000 kW, >1,000 kW) and Forecast, 2026-2034

South Korea Scroll and Absorption Chillers Market Trends

High-Efficiency Controls and Heat-Recovery Cooling

Technology development is concentrating on higher COP, intelligent controls and thermal-energy utilization. LG reports absorption equipment with COP of 1.36–1.39 and a product range extending to approximately 1,500 usRT; it also states that more than 10,000 absorption units have been supplied cumulatively. Its high-efficiency design improved efficiency by about 13% and reduced operating costs by approximately 11%.

Digitalization is increasingly important for data centers and industrial facilities. LG's steam absorption lineup spans 100–2,500 usRT with IPLV of 1.51, while its direct-fired technology reaches IPLV 1.70. Thermax offers absorption systems from 30–3,000 TR across steam, hot-water, direct-fired and exhaust-driven configurations, illustrating the industry's shift toward multi-energy and waste-heat solutions.

South Korea Scroll and Absorption Chillers Market Drivers

AI Infrastructure and High-Density Cooling Investment

South Korea's data-center expansion is increasing requirements for continuous thermal management. The country's broader data-center cooling industry was estimated at approximately USD 316 million in 2025 and has been projected to reach USD 1.28 billion by 2035 at 15.0% CAGR. A major Ulsan AI data-center initiative announced in 2025 involved roughly USD 5.1 billion of planned investment. These developments support demand for central chillers, redundant cooling plants and integrated controls.

South Korea Scroll and Absorption Chillers Market Restraints

Capital and Operating Economics Limit Thermal Chillers

Absorption configurations face unfavorable economics in certain high-density applications. A Korean study comparing cooling alternatives for a 40 MW Incheon data center reported COP of 0.736 for a medium-temperature absorption configuration versus 8.600 for an electrical alternative. The absorption configuration carried 232% higher initial investment and 539% higher annual OPEX, demonstrating why energy-source availability and lifecycle economics can constrain adoption.

South Korea Scroll and Absorption Chillers Market Opportunities

Waste-Heat Recovery Creates New Cooling Economics

Industrial exhaust, CHP and distributed generation create opportunities to convert thermal losses into cooling. Johnson Controls' 2026 absorption reference architecture indicates that 57% of energy normally lost as waste heat from on-site generation can be recovered, potentially reducing cooling electrical demand by up to 44%. For a 1 GW AI facility, the architecture could free as much as 97 MW for additional computing and lower cooling-system CO₂ emissions by up to 43%.

Challenges in South Korea Scroll and Absorption Chillers Market

Balancing Efficiency, Reliability and Cooling Architecture

Next-generation facilities must reconcile 24/7 availability with changing thermal loads and higher rack densities. Johnson Controls reports that advanced air-cooled architectures can improve annual energy consumption by 32%, return up to 50 MW to a 1 GW AI facility and deliver 20 MW peak-power savings. Higher chilled-water temperatures can improve COP by 30% while requiring 27% fewer chillers, intensifying competition between conventional and alternative cooling architectures.

South Korea Scroll and Absorption Chillers Market Segmentation

Segmentation covers chiller type, cooling capacity, energy source, application and end-user. In 2026, scroll chillers hold 57.19% of chiller-type revenue, while 100–500 kW systems hold 45.15% of capacity-based revenue. Energy-source, application and end-user revenue splits were not included in the supplied numerical dataset.

By Chiller Type

Scroll chillers lead at USD 157.77 million in 2026 and are forecast to reach USD 223.85 million by 2034, recording 4.47% CAGR. Their contribution rises from approximately 57.10% in 2025 to 57.83% in 2034.

Scroll chillers are also the fastest-growing supplied chiller type at 4.47% CAGR, compared with 4.13% for absorption chillers. Absorption chillers advance from USD 118.10 million in 2026 to USD 163.26 million in 2034.

By Cooling Capacity

The 100–500 kW segment leads with USD 124.54 million in 2026 and reaches USD 173.35 million by 2034 at 4.22% CAGR. It represents 45.15% of 2026 capacity-segment revenue.

The 501–1,000 kW category is the fastest-growing supplied capacity segment at 4.40% CAGR, reaching USD 152.96 million by 2034. The >1,000 kW category records 4.28% CAGR and reaches USD 59.96 million.

By Energy Source

Direct-fired, steam-fired, hot-water-fired and exhaust/waste-heat-recovery systems constitute the thermal-energy segmentation. Numerical revenue and CAGR values were not supplied for these four categories; consequently, no unsupported leader or fastest-growing category is assigned.

By Application

Commercial buildings, industrial facilities, district cooling plants, data centers, and government/institutional facilities form the application structure. The supplied dataset contains 5 application categories but provides no application-level revenue or CAGR allocation.

By End-User

Demand is distributed among HVAC contractors and EPC firms, facility-management companies, industrial-process operators, energy-service companies and real-estate developers. These 5 end-user groups influence specification, procurement and lifecycle servicing, although segment-specific numerical forecasts were not supplied.

South Korea Scroll and Absorption Chillers Market Outlook

South Korea constitutes 100% of the geographic scope, representing USD 275.87 million in 2026 and USD 387.11 million by 2034 at 4.30% CAGR. The supplied dataset does not allocate revenue among Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, Busan, Ulsan or other provinces; therefore, province-level percentage shares, production volumes and sector splits cannot be calculated without introducing unsupported assumptions. At national level, scroll equipment represents 57.19% of 2026 chiller-type revenue and absorption equipment 42.81%.

Top players in South Korea Scroll and Absorption Chillers Market

• LG Electronics
• World Energy Absorption Chillers
• Century Corporation
• Johnson Controls
• Trane Technologies
• Carrier Global Corporation
• Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
• Hitachi
• Thermax Limited
• Yazaki Corporation
• BROAD Group
• Kawasaki Heavy Industries
• Shuangliang Eco-Energy Systems
• ROBUR
• Samsung Electronics / FläktGroup

Top Two Companies

• LG Electronics

The supplied dataset provides 0 company-level percentage disclosures, so a defensible revenue share cannot be assigned. LG nevertheless has substantial domestic positioning, reporting more than 10,000 absorption units supplied cumulatively and absorption capacities extending to around 1,500 usRT. Its high-efficiency equipment has demonstrated COP up to 1.39, while newer direct-fired configurations reach IPLV 1.70. LG also operates an AI Data Center HVAC Solution Lab at its Pyeongtaek chiller plant and stated that 2025 data-center cooling orders were expected to more than triple year over year.

• Johnson Controls

Company-level percentage disclosure is likewise 0 in the supplied market dataset, preventing an evidence-based South Korean revenue share estimate. Its competitive position is strengthened by YORK chiller technologies and 2026 AI-factory reference architectures. The absorption blueprint targets cooling-electricity reductions of up to 44%, CO₂ reductions of up to 43%, PUE as low as 1.23 and as much as 97 MW of additional computing capacity in a 1 GW installation. These specifications position the company strongly for large mission-critical and waste-heat-integrated projects.

Recent Developments in South Korea Scroll and Absorption Chillers Market

• 2026:Johnson Controls launched an absorption-chiller reference design capable of reducing cooling electrical demand by up to 44% and enabling up to 97 MW of additional computing capacity in a 1 GW AI facility.
• 2026:Johnson Controls introduced an air-cooled AI-factory design targeting 32% lower annual energy consumption and more than 12 million gallons of daily water savings.
• 2026:Trane Technologies completed its acquisition of LiquidStack, integrating direct-to-chip and immersion technologies with central-plant chillers and controls.
• 2025:Samsung agreed to acquire 100% of FläktGroup for €1.5 billion, explicitly identifying data-center cooling as a strategic HVAC expansion area.
• 2025:Samsung completed the FläktGroup acquisition, adding production, R&D, automation and commercial/industrial HVAC capabilities to its platform.

Research Methodology

The assessment uses 2025 as the base year, 2026 as the current year, historical reference years of 2022–2024 and an 8-year forecast interval through 2034. Supplied mandatory figures form the primary quantitative dataset: USD 264.44 million in 2025, USD 275.87 million in 2026 and USD 387.11 million in 2034, with 4.30% CAGR. Segment shares were mathematically derived from supplied totals, while external sources were used only for technology, competitive, operating and development context. No unavailable province-level or company-level revenue percentages were fabricated.