Fluorochemical Weekly Report: Hot Refrigerant Domestic and Export Markets - Fluoropolymer Stability Maintenance and Observation

one

One week market

Refrigerant: After quota issuance, the domestic market is booming, leading to an increase in export orders. Many products are in short supply and prices are rising

This week, under the influence of quota policies, the refrigerant market continued to rise in the domestic trade market, and export orders increased simultaneously. The tight supply of goods drove up prices. Weekly market characteristics: The upstream raw material market has stable production and sales, product prices fluctuate narrowly, and refrigerant cost pressure is not significant. From the perspective of refrigerant production and sales scale, mainstream refrigerant factories continue to maintain a mentality of being reluctant to sell and encouraging growth, maintaining a load reduction and production reduction. The industry's operating rate is around 50%, and leading enterprises are gradually undergoing maintenance; Domestic sales are still good, but after the issuance of the license, there has been an increase in refrigerant export orders, and overall production and sales have improved. It is worth noting that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment released a detailed production quota for HFCs refrigerants in 2024 on January 11. Among them, the supply of R143a and R125 is expected to be tight, and the shortage of supply is expected to continue to drive up future prices; In addition, R32, R134a, and R227ea are also affected by limited supply this year, and factories have a strong mentality of being reluctant to sell and showing a strong upward trend. There are still expectations for further price increases in the future. In addition, driven by the reduction in the number of enterprises and total amount of quotas actually issued in 2024, the overall supply scale of HFCs refrigerants has decreased by tens of thousands of tons compared to the baseline value, which will have a positive impact on the future operation of refrigerants.

Fluorinated polymers: loose supply and demand game, price pressure maintaining stability and observation

This week, the supply of fluorinated polymers in the market continued to be loose, with weak downstream demand during the off-season and weak stocking intentions. Coupled with weak cost support trends, mainstream products in the short-term market are under pressure to maintain stable operation. In terms of specific products, the price stability of the main monomer raw materials R22 and R142b under pressure determines the stable cost of TFE series and VDF series fluorinated polymers, and the supply and demand relationship determines the stability of mainstream product prices in a weak environment. It is worth noting that mainstream fluoropolymer production enterprises, after experiencing an upward and downward extension of the industrial chain, as well as further diversification of product types, although cost reduction and supply guarantee are effectively improved, the problem of overcapacity is prominent. In the future, mainstream products will face profit margins being squeezed, and the product landscape will also be restructured.

two

Weekly News

Fluorine raw materials&refrigerants

Review of HFC-32 in 2023: Behind the Stable Industry Pattern, How the Product Market Changes

In 2023, the production capacity of HFC-32 continued the high-speed growth trend since 2020, while the output slightly contracted. Under the influence of market rules, the industry pattern maintained basic stability. But after three years of loss making and volume competition, the company has a high expectation of profit recovery, and market actions will become more frequent. The production limit set by the quota also eliminates the need for enterprises to rush to ship, and the industry's supply and demand pattern flips, further building a solid moat for the price increase of HFC-32.

Click on HFC-32 for details: Behind the stable industry landscape, how the product market changes

Jinshi Resources: Net profit expected to increase by 50% -70% year-on-year in 2023

Jinshi Resources released a performance forecast on the evening of January 16th, predicting a net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 333 million to 378 million yuan in 2023, an increase of approximately 111 million to 156 million yuan compared to the same period last year, a 50% to 70% year-on-year increase. Jinshi Resources also stated that in 2023, Jin'ebo Fluorochemical produced approximately 30000 tons of anhydrous hydrogen fluoride and sold approximately 29000 tons; At the end of the reporting period, the inventory of Jinling lithium mica concentrate in Jiangxi was about 28000 tons, and the inventory of fluorite fine powder in the Baotou "Selection and Chemical Integration" project was about 300000 tons.

Wuchuan, Guizhou: The first phase of the 40000 ton/year electronic grade hydrofluoric acid project is expected to be put into operation in March

On January 16th, Guizhou Daily reported that the first phase of the 40000 tons/year electronic grade hydrofluoric acid project in the Fluorine Barium New Materials Industrial Park in Wuchuan Autonomous County has completed civil construction and is currently undergoing equipment installation and inspection to ensure smooth production in early March.

Xu Peng, the director of the production factory of Wuchuan ZhongEurope Fluorine Electronic New Materials Co., Ltd., revealed that the electronic grade hydrofluoric acid project with an annual output of 40000 tons will start construction in December 2022, with a total investment of 120 million yuan. It is expected to start debugging and production of the project in March 2024, and the expected output value will be around 300 million yuan after the project reaches production.

It is reported that the project will be constructed in two phases. The first phase is currently 20000 tons per year, and the second phase will install equipment on the existing foundation to increase production. The same amount is 20000 tons per year. After the project is put into operation, it will produce 40000 tons of electronic grade hydrofluoric acid and 5000 tons of industrial grade hydrofluoric acid per year. The products will mainly be used for downstream fluorine chemical projects in the industrial park.

Fluorinated polymers

Sanmei Corporation and Xinqiguang's joint venture fluorine chemical integration project has officially started construction

On the morning of January 13th, at the on-site promotion meeting for key manufacturing projects in the first quarter of 2024 in Chongqing, the fluorine chemical integration project jointly invested by Sanmei Group and Xinqiguang officially began construction.

The project signed a contract with Changshou Economic Development Zone on November 9, 2023. The two largest shareholders of Chongqing Jialihe New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. are Sanmei Group and Xinqiguang Chemical. On December 27, 2023, the environmental impact assessment documents for the integrated fluorine chemical project (Phase II, 50000 tons of R152a) were officially accepted. According to the news, the project is located in Changshou Economic and Technological Development Zone, Chongqing, with a total investment of 590 million yuan. It is planned to build a 50000 ton/year calcium carbide dry process acetylene to R152a (1,1-difluoroethane) plant and supporting calcium carbide dry process acetylene plant.

After the completion of its fluorine chemical integration project, the products will include trifluoroacetic acid ethyl ester, trifluoroacetic acid, R152, R142b, polyvinylidene fluoride PVDF, hexafluoropropylene (HFP), polyperfluoroethylene propylene (FEP), trifluorochloroethylene (CTFE), etc. The product R152a accepted for this project can be used as a raw material for PVDF in the subsequent third phase of the project, which is an important part of the company's independent industrial chain support.

In the 44kt/a high-end fluoropolymer project of Juhua Group, the 7kt/a fluororubber was first self inspected and accepted

On December 25, 2023, the website of Zhejiang Environmental Protection Testing Technology Co., Ltd. released a notice of self acceptance for the 44kt/a high-end fluoropolymer project (7kt/a fluororubber part) of Zhejiang Juhua Co., Ltd.

According to the public announcement, the 44kt/a high-end fluorinated polymer project is a production facility for downstream fluorinated monomers and polymer products using TFE as the main raw material. It organizes the production of high-end fluorinated polymer products such as 50kt/a TFE, 5kt/a HFP, 32kt/a high-performance PTFE, 7kt/a fluororubber, and co produces 500kt/a hydrochloric acid, 2kt/a hexafluoropropylene, 12kt/a hydrofluoric acid, and 1.5kt/a potassium fluoride, as well as their supporting hydrochloric acid concentration, defluorination, and incineration.

The construction content of this acceptance includes the 7kt/a fluorine rubber part, which will be renovated and expanded on the original 3000t/a fluorine rubber device. The new production capacity will include 2500t/a F26 (binary fluorine rubber), 2000t/a F246 (ternary fluorine rubber), 1000t/a new product F26 (binary fluorine rubber), and 1500t/a new product F246 (ternary fluorine rubber). After the construction is completed, the total production capacity will be 10000t/a fluorine rubber.

The project started construction in July 2022 and was completed and put into trial production in May 2023. The actual investment of the project is 11 million yuan, of which 2.5 million yuan is for environmental protection, accounting for 2.27% of the total investment.