HFCs flood Europe despite phase down

EUROPE: Refrigerant manufacturer Honeywell has repeated claims that European HFC imports are increasing despite the F-gas phase down.

Earlier this year, Honeywell claimed that over 10 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent HFCs were illegally imported into the EU in 2015 – the first year of the phase down when the allocation was 182.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. This year is supposed to see a 7% reduction but Honeywell claims some countries are now importing as much as 2.5 times as much as they were pre-phase-down.

Dr Patrick Amrhein, Honeywell’s fluorine products marketing director for EMEA, said: “This is a major issue we are facing.”

Having recently run the numbers again on import statistics, he said: “What we can see is the amount of refrigerant coming from China into the European Union increasing year-over-year. When you look at the phase down mechanism this should not happen.”

He also claims that the problem seems to be with certain countries. “Traditional importers like the Netherlands, France, UK, Belgium, these countries are more or less stagnating or are on a small decline. What’s new is that countries such as Poland, Hungary, Greece, the Balkan areas, there you see increases compared to previous years of 140-160%. The interesting question is who sits there that holds all the quota?” he mused.

“We see a disconnect between the legislation and its implementation at a national level,” Dr Amrhein said in May. “I don’t think there is currently a system in place which allows the national customs authorities to really check if an importer has quota or if the importer who does have quota has exceeded the amount of imports they can bring in.”

According to the F-gas regulation, the consequences for producers and importers exceeding their allocated quota is a deduction of double the excess from the company’s quota the following year.

BELGIUM: One of the leading refrigerant manufacturers has claimed that over 10 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent HFCs were illegally imported into the EU in 2015.

Last year was the first year that the European Union’s phase down under the F-gas regulations came into force, allocating registered companies a quota from the total 182.5 million tonnes of F-gas allowed to be placed on the market.

Honeywell maintains that this amount has been exceeded by what it describes as illegal imports. If true, the illegal amount is equivalent to more than 5% of the total allocation and based on CO2 equivalents would represent, for example, well over 2,500 tonnes of R404A or 7,700 tonnes of R134a.

The concerns are also backed by another leading refrigerant supplier Chemours who said that they, too, had seen market indications of illegal imports.

Honeywell says it has based its estimated calculations on publicly available sources, such as export data from China, and compared these with EFCTC (Cefic) data. Honeywell has also heard of instances of companies without quota bringing in material and offering it for sale.

“As Honeywell is a significant market player, we also used our own estimations of imports of the biggest market players,” Dr Patrick Amrhein, Honeywell’s fluorine products marketing director for EMEA, told the Cooling Post. “This resulted in a figure showing material which cannot be assigned to any market player – and therefore has to come to the market outside of the quota.”

However, the real scale of the trade in illegal material could be far higher and does not include any refrigerant shipments that may have been smuggled into Europe or mis-declared.

“The amount of material coming into Europe far exceeds what should be coming in,” said Dr Amrhein. “I think 10 million tonnes is a conservative figure. Our estimation is that it is larger.”

A total of 413 companies were assigned quotas in 2015, 334 of them were new entrants. Each quota holder’s figures are audited at the end of March each year. The consequences for producers and importers exceeding their allocated quota is a deduction of double the excess from the company’s quota the following year.

Earlier this year, the Cooling Post revealed that imports of HFC refrigerants doubled in 2014, suggesting huge stockpiling in the run-up 2015 to the introduction of F-gas quotas.

Lack of control

Honeywell has also raised concerns at what it perceives as a lack of control or implementation at customs points.

“We see a disconnect between the legislation and its implementation at a national level,” said Dr Amrhein. “I don’t think there is currently a system in place which allows the national customs authorities to really check if an importer has quota or if the importer who does have quota has exceeded the amount of imports they can bring in.”

The concerns over the potential for illegal imports are shared by Chemours. “We have seen market indications of illegal imports as mentioned by Honeywell,” said Lene Stosic, Chemours’ senior communications manager, EMEA. “We share the commitment to supporting the F-gas industry in the successful implementation of the cap and phase down.”

Authorised dealer programme

To reassure the market, Honeywell has implemented an Authorised Dealers programme to help purchasers ensure they are buying refrigerants that comply with the European F-gas regulations.

“This programme is part of Honeywell’s ongoing efforts to help customers ensure they are using refrigerants and other materials that comply with this new regulation,” said Dr Patrick Amrhein. “By buying from a Honeywell Authorised Dealer, customers can avoid putting their businesses at legal risk of violating the regulation by using an illegal refrigerant. Honeywell is continuing to build awareness of the risks and legal consequences of using illegally imported refrigerants, and is working closely with EU authorities to actively prevent illegal imports to the EU market.

“We are not the policemen of the industry, we are just responding to requests from our customers who want to buy genuine high quality material that is fully compliant with the F-gas regulations,” Dr Amrhein maintained.

EUROPE: Shocking new figures reveal evidence of huge European stockpiling of HFC refrigerants in advance of the 2015 F-gas quotas.

The startling figures for 2014, just released by the European Environment Agency, show that imports of HFC refrigerants into Europe almost doubled to 122,781 tonnes (260.9Mt CO2‑equivalent) in 2014, the year before quotas under the European F-gas regulations were introduced.

This huge stockpile is thought to be the reason why refrigerant prices, particularly for the higher GWP gases, have not risen as predicted by many industry experts.

While bulk imports of fluorinated gases had been declining from 2010 to 2013, HFC bulk imports in 2014 were approximately 90% above 2013 levels, both by mass and CO2‑equivalent.

The figures are based on submissions by companies on the production, import and export of fluorinated greenhouse gases in the European Union for 2014, the first year of compulsory reporting under the new F-gas regulation 517/2014. 

Leaving aside the other fluorinated greenhouse gases (SF6, PFCs, etc), HFCs are said to account for about 95% of the increase in bulk imports and around 75% of all reported imports were destined for use as refrigerants for refrigeration, air conditioning and heating purposes.

Although supplies intended for use in air conditioning and refrigeration had been static or declining in recent years, 2014 saw a huge increase to 92,958 – a 73% increase on the previous year and a 36% increase on the peak year for HFC supply in 2010.

In contrast to the rise in imports, EU production of HFCs declined for the fourth consecutive year. Production measured in tonnes experienced a year-on-year decline of 15%, or 11% in terms of CO2‑equivalents, to 31,050 tonnes. Reportable HFC production in Europe was limited to just six HFCs – 134a, 365mfc, 143a, 32, 227ea and 23. The supply of the other 19 fluorinated gases used in the EU in 2014 was provided by imports.

Reporting of imports and production became compulsory in 2014 and led to a significant rise in reporting companies. For 2014, the number of reporting companies tripled compared with 2013 to 468. The European Environment Agency attributes the increase to the addition for the first time of importers of products and equipment containing reportable fluorinated gases and to new bulk importers of gases.