IOL Fluorochemical Weekly Report: Refrigerants continue to experience tight supply and rising prices, while fluoropolymers remain weak and difficult to change

One week market
Refrigerant: At the end of the year, factories will produce goods based on remaining quotas to support tight supply and high prices
This week, the quota of refrigerant factories has been exhausted, and the tight supply of goods has supported the high price exploration. Market characteristics of the week: Upstream raw materials such as fluorite powder and hydrofluoric acid have light production and sales, and prices are temporarily stable; The prices of other raw material products have increased more or decreased less, but the current refrigerant market prices are mainly affected by supply and demand, and cost fluctuations have little impact on their prices. From a product perspective, the quota for R22 has been exhausted within the year, with only a few factories quoting and accepting orders. The tight supply of goods has supported a slight increase in prices; At the end of the year, the quota surplus of mainstream HFC refrigerant factories is limited, and each company cautiously accepts orders and schedules production based on the remaining quota. The industry's operating capacity remains low, and mainstream factories such as Juhua, Sinochem, Sanmei, Yonghe, etc. have plans to shut down within the month. The overall market continues to face a tight supply situation. Due to high refrigerant prices and a strong wait-and-see atmosphere in the retail market, overall production and sales are weak. As the end of the year approaches, due to the impact of export licenses and longer shipping schedules, refrigerant foreign trade orders are unable to be delivered in time and are generally stagnant. It is expected that the market will maintain a tight supply situation in the short term, with factories being reluctant to sell, controlling orders, and suspending quotations being common. In the future, refrigerant prices will fluctuate at high levels.

Fluorinated polymers: the demand industry's "low growth rate normal" market will remain sluggish and hovering
This week, the production and sales of mainstream products in the fluoropolymer market were flat, and the weak market trend has not changed in the short term. Factories accept orders and schedule production according to inventory, and there are continuous factory inspections at the end of the year. From the perspective of the industrial chain, the stable and rising prices of upstream basic raw materials provide strong cost support for all fluoropolymer products, while organic fluorine intermediate products are caught between upstream and downstream pressures, facing a dilemma of ups and downs. Enterprises with high integrity of the industrial chain have obvious advantages. On the demand side, due to the global economy entering a "low growth rate normal", industries such as defense and military, aerospace, semiconductors, electronics and electrical, automotive, and chemical are the main application areas with mostly single digit growth. Based on the above prediction, it is difficult to change the weak trend of volume increase and price decrease in the current situation where demand growth rate is far lower than supply growth rate.

Weekly news
01
Jinshi Resources invests 170 million yuan to increase investment in Mongolia's fluorite project
Jinshi Resources announced tonight that the company plans to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary "Lacwest FILLLC" in Mongolia through its holding subsidiary Zhejiang Huameng Holdings Co., Ltd. as the project implementation entity, with an investment of approximately 173 million yuan to build a 1500 ton/day fluorite ore beneficiation plant project. The project construction period is expected to be 24 months, and after the project is completed and put into operation, it is expected to produce 180000 tons of fluorite powder annually. Jinshi Resources stated in the announcement that it will simultaneously produce and transform projects in Mongolia, and expand adjacent resources, in order to gradually achieve an annual output of 200000 to 300000 tons of equivalent high-grade fluorite ore and acid grade fluorite powder within 1-2 years, and strive to achieve an annual output of equivalent 500000 tons of fluorite products within 3-5 years.
02
Zhongke Fluorine Source plans to deploy 100000 tons/year fully fluorinated immersion coolant
On December 6th, the first public announcement of the environmental impact assessment for the standardization and digitization of high-purity fluorine and fluoride immersion coolant production base of Zhongke Fuyuan (Nanchong) Technology Development Co., Ltd. was made. The project is located in Nanchong Economic and Technological Development Chemical Industrial Park, with a total land area of approximately 176 acres. It is planned to produce 100000 tons of fully fluorinated immersion coolant annually and reserve approximately 1000 tons of high-purity fluorine gas production line for the downstream development of fine fluorine chemical industry (excluding storage).
03
Shandong Qifu meltable polytetrafluoroethylene resin PFA successfully rolled off the production line
On the morning of December 13th, the key investment projects in Gaoqing County were put into operation, and the production ceremony for the Shandong Qifu New Material Project was launched. The Qifu project site is a vivid epitome of the bustling scene of the Gaoqing project construction. The first phase of the fluorine-containing high-end electronic materials project started construction in September last year and was completed and put into operation five months ahead of schedule. The core product has broken through the foreign "bottleneck" technology; Simultaneously preparing for the second phase project, we will lay out fluorinated new material products with good market prospects and high demand, such as modified polytetrafluoroethylene, fluororubber, and fluorinated heat exchange fluids. The total investment is over 1 billion yuan, and the project has been approved. It is expected to start construction in May next year and be completed and put into operation in January 2026.
04
Zhuhai Liwen's 3000 ton annual FEC project has been successfully put into operation
Recently, the first phase of the technical renovation project of Zhuhai Liwen's annual production of 3000 tons of fluorinated vinyl carbonate and supporting engineering (annual production of 1500 tons of fluorinated vinyl carbonate) was successfully launched in one go, packaging fluorinated vinyl carbonate products with purity of 99.97%, moisture content less than 10PPm, chromaticity less than 10Hazen, and qualified metal ion content, marking the official completion and operation of the project.