Zhejiang Yonghe to establish expansion project of PVDF and HFPO

    Summary: In late Aug. 2021, Zhejiang Yonghe announced that it plans to build an expansion project of 10,000 t/a PVDF and 3,000 t/a HFPO; the company's performance in H1 2021 improved significantly compared with H1 2020.   

    On 30 Aug., 2021, Zhejiang Yonghe Refrigerant Co., Ltd. (Zhejiang Yonghe) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Shaowu Yonghe Jintang New Material Co., Ltd. (Shaowu Yonghe) is going to build an expansion project of 10,000 t/a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and 3,000 t/a Hexafluoropropylene oxide (HFPO). The total investment of this project hits USD47.41 million (RMB306.62 million), of which USD34.94 million (RMB226.00 million) is used for construction and USD12.46 million (RMB80.62 million) is for working capital. The total production capacity of PVDF of this project is 10,000 t/a, including 4,000 t/a product grade PVDF, 3,000 t/a coating grade PVDF, 1,000 t/a water film grade PVDF and 2,000 t/a li-ion battery grade PVDF (the specific capacity of each type may be adjusted according to market demand). This project is divided into two phases and the construction period of the whole project is 36 months; the first phase project is anticipated to reach designed capacity within 24 months.   

    Zhejiang Yonghe stated that it has not yet realised the production of raw material, vinylidene fluoride (VDF). The VDF project of the company's subsidiary, Inner Mongolia Yonghe Fluorine Co., Ltd. (Inner Mongolia Yonghe), has still been under construction and whether the construction progress can match this expansion project is uncertain. In addition, the company faces the risks of transportation and inadequate raw materials due to the long distance from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to Shaowu City, Nanping City, Fujian Province.   

    On the same day, Zhejiang Yonghe disclosed its financial data and semi-annual report for H1 2021. In Jan.–June 2021, Zhejiang Yonghe's revenues grew by 31.50% YoY and net profits attributed to shareholders of the listed company and net profits without non-recurring losses and gains went up by 68.58% and 118.72% YoY respectively. The company said that its performance improved substantially compared with the same period last year mainly because the newly-built fluorochemical production line in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the fluoropolymer production line of Jinhua Yonghe Fluorochemical Co., Ltd. were put into production and thus Zhejiang Yonghe's capacity of anhydrous hydrogen fluoride (AHF), heptafluoropropane (HFC-227ea), hexafluoropropylene (HFP), and fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) increased gradually; market prices of fluorochemical products ceased slipping and started to mount since Q4 2020; meanwhile, the company sales outside China also recovered gradually and scale of production and sales further expanded.