China Fluoride Materials Monthly Report

In Jan. 2014, China’s fluorine chemical market witnessed a light trading. The average ex-works prices of domestic fluoride materials of concern maintained stable. Of this, the ex-works price of PTFE rallied in Jan., 2014, after going through a sharp decrease in Q4 2013. However, ex-works price of fluoride salt saw a continuous uptrend in Jan., due to the strengthened demand from electrolytic aluminum industry. Since Q4 2013, electrolytic aluminum producers have raised the operating rate. For instance, the ex-works price of AlF₃ in Jan. was USD1,237/t, up 2.06% compared with that in Dec. 2013. Moreover, the ex-works price of cryolite increased from USD904/t in Dec. 2013 to USD951/t in Jan. 2014, up 5.20%. 

Despite the light trading in the market, several domestic leading fluorine chemical enterprises began to launch new projects, since they held a positive attitude towards the fluorine new materials and fluorine fine chemicals. For instance, Jiangsu Meilan and 3F Zhonghao invested to launch advanced fluorine-contained material project and fluorine fine chemical project respectively. Meanwhile, the domestic enterprises achieved breakthroughs in scientific technological innovation. Do-Fluoride's R&D project, known as "Technique Development for Lithium-enriched Anhydrous Aluminum Fluoride", was granted scientific-technological achievement status by the Henan Provincial Department of Science and Technology. The technique was further recognized as meeting national advanced standards. Now it has been put into operation.

In this issue, CCM pays attention to China’s fluorine refrigerants particularly. Based on two dominant products, R22 and R134a, CCM conducted deep analysis on the industry. In 2013, the two products presented different tendencies. Prices for R22 began to recover in the second semester, while prices for R134a reached their lowest point and have not recovered. In 2014, China's refrigerant industry is expected to face many challenges.

The RMB/USD exchange rate in this issue is USD1.00=RMB6.1089 on 7 Feb., 2014, sourced from the People's Bank of China. 

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