IOL Fluorochemical Weekly Report: Refrigerant Market Maintains Temporary Stability, Fluorinated Polymers Continue Weak Supply and Demand

Refrigerant: Steady Growth in Downstream Production and Sales, Expected Tight Balance in Supply and Demand for Popular Products
This week, the refrigerant market remained relatively stable, with a prevailing sentiment of market观望 (wait-and-see). Key market features during the week: As the year-end approached, mainstream manufacturers' quotas were nearly exhausted, leaving only limited export quotas for certain products. Factories generally implemented production halts or reductions, while a few announced quotations but deferred actual order acceptance until after the New Year. Under the dual weak production and sales scenario at year-end, demand for upstream raw materials remained sluggish, resulting in an overall weak market trend that drove continuous price declines for most products. On the demand side: On one hand, from January to November 2025, total automotive sales reached 31.127 million units (+11.4%), including 14.78 million new energy vehicles (+31.2%). Driven by factors such as new energy vehicles requiring 2-4 times the refrigerant charge of fuel-powered cars and a shifting consumption structure toward large SUVs, R134a demand is expected to grow. On the other hand, January 2026 saw household air conditioner production reach 18.505 million units (+11.0%), with the air conditioning market projected to maintain stable growth in 2026. Overall, against the backdrop of supply quota constraints and clear demand-driven benefits, popular products are expected to maintain tight supply-demand balance, sustaining high market activity in the coming period.

Fluorine-containing polymers: Intense supply-demand competition drives annual average prices of mainstream products downward
This week, the fluoropolymer industry chain continued to operate under pressure at the bottom, with the cost center of mainstream products also fluctuating near the floor. Intense supply-demand competition led to a market-wide increase in volume but a decline in prices, resulting in lower annual average prices. Weekly market characteristics: The price of upstream raw material hydrofluoric acid showed signs of rising, providing upward support for products across the entire fluoropolymer chain such as PVDF, PTFE, and FEP. However, the transmission of cost pressures was hindered, making it difficult to achieve substantive price increases. On the supply side, although some companies slightly reduced production loads, the industry's overall operating rate remained high, leaving market and corporate inventories to be worked off. On the demand side, demand remained stable in traditional chemical sectors like corrosion prevention, as well as in automotive and transportation, machinery and industrial manufacturing, and defense and military applications. Meanwhile, emerging sectors such as new energy, semiconductors, healthcare, aerospace, environmental engineering, AI, and data centers are expected to experience explosive growth in demand. Breaking it down by product, intermediate product HFP remained stagnant at low levels due to supply-demand pressures and cost fluctuations; despite stronger cost support, PVDF was significantly constrained by weak demand, resulting in weak price rebounds. High-end PFA and fluorinated liquids used in semiconductors saw supply growth far outpacing demand growth, facing the same dilemma of increased volume but falling prices. In summary, the fluoropolymer material market is expected to continue its sluggish trend of weak supply and demand in the short term.

Weekly News

01Jiangxi Liwen 2000 tons/year tetrafluoropropene (HFO-1234yf) project announcement
On December 30th, the environmental impact assessment information for the pilot project of tetrafluoropropene at Jiangxi Liwen Chemical Co., Ltd. was publicly announced for the first time. The project is located in Matou Industrial City, Ruichang City, Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province. It is planned to build a 2000 ton/year HFO-1234yf pilot project for tetrafluoropropene, providing technical support and data verification for subsequent industrial production. In addition, in the layout of the fourth generation refrigerant, the first phase of Jiangxi Sci Tech Chemical's new green refrigerant project includes 3000 tons of tetrafluoropropene (R1234ze), with an investment of 335 million yuan. The project also includes an annual output of 10000 tons of pentachloropropane (R240fa) and 4000 tons of pentafluoropropane (R245fa).

02Fujian Keneng's new environmentally friendly high-performance coolant project has officially started trial production
According to China News Service Fujian News, on December 25th, the new environmentally friendly high-performance coolant project of Fujian Keneng New Materials Co., Ltd. with a total investment of 500 million yuan was officially put into trial production in Shunchang Jinshan New Materials Industrial Park. This project relies on 10 independent invention patents and Corning's microchannel reaction technology to achieve full process automation production. The first phase can produce products such as hexafluoropropylene oligomers and perfluorohexane annually, while the second phase will add high-end products such as electronic fluorinated coolant, which will be applied in fields such as computing power centers and electronic manufacturing. After completion, the project can produce 10000 tons of green and environmentally friendly fire extinguishing agents and 8000 tons of electronic fluorinated coolant annually.

03The energy-saving review of the 6000 tons/year trifluorochloroethylene and other projects by Sanaifu has been approved
On December 27, Changshu San'aifu Fluorochemical Co., Ltd. passed the energy conservation review of the fixed assets investment project with an annual output of 6000 tons of chlorotrifluoroethylene, 13200 tons of hydrochloric acid and 1200 tons of hydrofluoric acid. The project has an investment of 194.7457 million yuan, which aims to phase out the existing production unit of perfluorodichloroethane (F141b), cancel the full production capacity of 12632 tons/year of the existing F141b product, utilize the framework of the old F141b unit, build a new hydrogen supply station (Class A, with a building area of 340.90 square meters), use the existing pipe gallery to add pipelines to the existing CTFE buried tank area, and carry out adaptive transformation of public auxiliary facilities to achieve an increase in production of 6000 tons/year of trifluorochloroethylene (CTFE), 13200 tons/year of by-product hydrochloric acid, and 1200 tons/year of by-product hydrofluoric acid.

04Hubei Yihua 58500 ton high-end fluorine material integration project announced
On December 29th, the high-end fluorine material integration project of Hubei Yihua Group Co., Ltd. was declared and announced on the Hubei Government Service Network. The project has an investment of 515773 million yuan, with an annual output of 30000 tons of tetrafluoropropene, 10000 tons of polytetrafluoroethylene, 2000 tons of soluble polytetrafluoroethylene, 5000 tons of perfluoropolyether, 10000 tons of perfluorohexane, 500 tons of hexafluorobutadiene, 1000 tons of polyetheretherketone and other products. The proposed start date is December 2026.