Refrigerants –On Fire As predicted before the Chinese New Year , refrigerants prices did increase. But no one could expect the increase to be so crazy in February. At the end of January, there was a serious accident among one of the top 3 producers of hydrofluoric acid, which is one of the main raw materials for all the basic Freon products. These plants are totally shut down, and expected to remain out of service to at least June'17. This reduction caused a big shortage of hydrofluoric acid in the market. On the other hand, China’s EPA enacted more stringent controls, especially for the by-products of Freon- HCL, which is has become another major problem for every producer. Due to more and more stocked HCL, most producers are not able to proceed to full production capacity . With the upcoming summer season , a possible shortage and price increases for all major refrigerants will be inevitable. After the holiday, R134a prices started a daily increase, as well as all major refrigerants. As of the end of this month , most prices have increased more than 20% . Meanwhile all producers have full production schedules until mid-April and some have even have stopped offering prices. Everyone is asking when the market will stabilize? We must say there is no sign that this situation will change during March . Perhaps after April, when the factories have more production capacity, we will have a better idea of the situation.
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