WILMINGTON, Del; July 9, 2015 – Chemours Fluoroproducts announced that it has doubled the supply of low-GWP Opteon™ YF (HFO-1234yf) refrigerant in Zhonghao, China. The additional supply enables Chemours to meet growing needs for more sustainable mobile and stationary air conditioning applications. This increase in capacity is especially significant due to the July 2 announcement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of a Final Rule to eliminate HFC134a from its list of acceptable refrigerants for new automobile air conditioners, effective for the 2021 model year.
Opteon™ YF was originally developed in response to Europe’s Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC) Directive, which called for the use of a refrigerant that has a GWP below 150. This created a critical need for a refrigerant that not only met this requirement, but also performed well in terms of safety, performance, fuel efficiency and cost effectiveness. Opteon™ YF has been proven to provide the optimal balance of these properties and has been adopted globally by major automotive manufacturers. Chemours now forecasts that there will be more than nine million vehicles using HFO-1234yf on the road by the end of 2015.
In addition to mobile applications, Chemours recently announced the commercialization of its Opteon™ XP product line in Europe for stationary applications. This includes Opteon™ XP40, Opteon™ XP10, and Opteon™ XP44, designed to support regulatory requirements by replacing HFC-404A and HFC-134a in commercial refrigeration and other stationary applications. The Opteon™ XP product line is expected to be ready for sale in the United States in August this year.
“Chemours was the first company to establish capacity of HFO-1234yf and has the world’s largest capacity today,” said Thierry F.J. Vanlancker, president, Chemours Fluoroproducts. “We were the first company to offer commercial-scale manufacturing, and made the first commercial shipments from our original facility in Japan in November 2011 and our China facility in 2012. With this capacity increase at our Zhonghao facility we believe we have sufficient supply to meet our customers’ current demand, and are in the final planning stages of our next increments of capacity to ensure we meet growing future demand.”
“Chemours has put in place aftermarket distribution capabilities in 40 countries in Europe, the Middle-East and Africa, and across the United States,” added Diego Boeri, global business director, Chemours Fluorochemicals. “Service equipment for use in handling this product is commercially available, and aftermarket service capability is developing in new countries as vehicles containing HFO-1234yf go to market there. This enables automakers to easily adopt Opteon™ YF and comply with the MAC Directive in Europe or to take advantage of greenhouse gas credits in the United States.”
As the leading industry supplier of more environmentally sustainable refrigerants, Chemours has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to provide customers with new Opteon™ products with no ozone depletion and low global warming potential. The company and its suppliers have plans to invest hundreds of millions more in the next five years to bring online additional capacity of these more sustainable, high-performance products that serve a wide range of applications including mobile air condition, stationary refrigeration and foam expansion agents.
About The Chemours Company
The Chemours Company helps create a colorful, capable and cleaner world through the power of chemistry. Chemours is a global leader in titanium technologies, fluoroproducts and chemical solutions, providing its customers with solutions in a wide range of industries with market-defining products, application expertise, and chemistry-based innovations. Chemours ingredients are found in plastics and coatings, refrigeration and air conditioning, mining and oil refining operations and general industrial manufacturing. Our flagship products include prominent brands such as Teflon™, Ti-Pure™, Krytox™, Viton™, Opteon™ and Nafion™. Chemours has approximately 9,000 employees across 37 manufacturing sites serving more than 5,000 customers in North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Chemours is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and is listed on the NYSE under the symbol CC. For more information, please visit chemours.com or follow Chemours on Twitter at @chemours.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, which may be identified by their use of words like “plans,” “expects,” “will,” “believes,” “intends,” “estimates,” “anticipates” or other words of similar meaning. All statements that address expectations or projections about the future, including statements about the timing of the spin-off, are forward-looking statements. Forwardlooking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are based on certain assumptions and expectations of future events which may not be realized. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including those described in the registration statement on Form 10 and other filings made by Chemours with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ. Chemours undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements as a result of future developments or new information.
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CONTACT:
Andrew Abloeser
Global Marketing Communications Consultant Chemours Fluoroproducts
302-773-4502
[email protected]