Energy price has been significantly increasing in the international market since 2021. In domestic market, the coal and electricity have always been in short supply, resulting in the recent power rationing in some regions.
Under the influence of the “Dual-Control” policy, some fluorine chemical companies have restricted or shut down the production, resulting in tight supply of the product. Thus, the price of fluorine raw materials, refrigerants and fluorine polymers increased significantly as well.
Market situation of fluorine raw materials
1. Fluorspar
Due to power shortage and upcoming cold weather, the fluorspar price significantly increased in the northern market, ranging from RMB 50-150/MT.
2. Anhydrous hydrofluoric acid
On the eve of the National Day (October 1), due to the “Dual-Control” policy, many refrigerant companies planned to carry out the maintenance, and the price in October is not as high as expected by anhydrous hydrofluoric acid producers. After the holidays, the price of raw material fluorspar increased.
Situations of the downstream market
1. Aluminum fluoride
As the winter season is coming, some aluminum companies have begun increasing the inventory. Thus, it is estimated the aluminum fluoride price will continue to increase.
2. Refrigerant
Due to the poor logistics, the companies mainly sell the inventory products during the National Day holiday week, and refrigerant price is mainly the same as that of before the holidays.
The power restriction policy continued to heat up, and the production was restricted to different degrees in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Shandong. Jiangsu and Guangdong are energy consumption warning regions with serious shutdown and overhauling situation, and a large number of companies were shut down in the last two weeks of September. After the holidays, the power was only given to those key facilities to resume the production. For example, Meilan mainly guarantee the production of refrigerant R22, and Sanaifu mainly guarantee the production of refrigerant R142b, etc. As the power restriction policy is persistent, utilization rate of the companies is not optimistic in the short term.
Source: Fluoro chemical