EU: High-GWP HFC shortages and price rises

Several refrigeration associations in the EU have warned of severe refrigerant supply problems in their countries. This situation is linked to the implementation from January 2018 of a decrease of 37% of the quota allocated to producers/importers for placing HFCs on the market within the 2014 F-gas Regulation. Since this quota system is based on CO2 equivalents, refrigerant producers and suppliers are effectively able to place on the market far more low-GWP than higher-GWP refrigerants.

This has led to record price increases of up to 60% on high-GWP refrigerants R404A and R507A, and up to 30% on R410A in December 2017. Even the lower-GWP R404A alternatives R448A and R449A face price increases of up to 20%. In France, refrigeration industry association SNEFFCA noted a multiplication by 5 of R404A prices from early 2017.

This also led to refrigerant shortages in several countries including Austria, France, Germany and Spain.

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