Hydrofluoric Acid Market Picks Up As Demand Rises for CFC Substitutes

16 November 1998 00:00  [Source: ICB Americas]

By Robert Brown

The hydrofluoric acid market is finally tightening after expansions by the three main producers--E. I. du Pont de Nemours, AlliedSignal Inc. and Mexico's Quimica Fluor--in response to projections of a surge in demand for replacements to chlorinated fluorocarbons. "We're beginning to see the long-anticipated increase in demand for replacement fluorocarbons," says Mark Looney, executive vice-president of Chemtech Products Inc., the merchant marketer of Quimica Fluor's hydrofluoric acid.

"In the third quarter of this year, the North American HF industry was in a sold-out position due primarily to a high demand from fluorocarbon production," adds Tom Crane, a spokesman for AlliedSignal. "We expect this demand to continue to grow and are in the planning stages of adding production and distribution capacity by 2001." Mr. Crane notes that the phaseout of CFCs "has definitely been a key driver" behind the increasing demand for HF. "It takes more HF to produce environmentally safer fluorocarbons than it did to produce the CFCs they are replacing," he explains.

In 1996, HF producers launched a spate of expansions in response to an expected increase in hydrofluoric demand. AlliedSignal restarted a 52,000-short-ton-per-year facility in Amherstburg, Ontario, that the company had mothballed four years earlier because of the declining market for CFCs, then the single largest end use for HF. Allied's restart of its Amherstburg plant was partially offset by Elf Atochem North America Inc.'s decision to mothball its 26,000-ton HF facility in Calvert City, Ky. But DuPont launched a 10 percent debottlenecking while its plant was down for annual maintenance, and Quimica Fluor completed a 15 percent expansion at that time.

The HFCs and HCFCs that are replacing CFCs use more HF on a pound-for-pound basis, but a larger-than-anticipated stockpile of CFCs, coupled with illegal imports, slowed the projected increase in HF consumption. With supplies of stockpiled and illegally imported CFCs finally whittled down, HF producers are finally enjoying the expected growth in demand. "Demand is starting to ramp up," says Mr. Looney.

As the largest merchant producer of HF, AlliedSignal operates a 130,000-short-ton-per-year HF facility in Geismar, La., as well as the Amherstburg facility and smaller plants in Weert, the Netherlands, and Seelze, Germany. The company is running all four furnaces at its Geismar plant and both of its furnaces in Amherstburg. The company plans to add a seventh North American furnace by 2001.

Besides the production of fluorocarbon replacements, HF is also used in the manufacture of environmentally safer fluoropolymers and fluorine-containing chemical derivatives and specialties. HF has additional applications in refinery alkylation, specialty metal extraction, such as tantalum and beryllium, and stainless steel pickling. Glass etching, semiconductor manufacturing and feldspar (quartz) production also use HF.

Although smaller in terms of sales, high-purity HF is another expanding market. "This growing demand is being driven by an increased stringency in device characteristics and process controls," Mr. Crane says.

As electronic devices continue to become smaller and faster, semiconductor manufacturers are demanding higher purity HF. AlliedSignal now offers ultra-high purity HF and other HF-derivative electronic chemicals containing fewer than 100 parts per trillion cations. These are manufactured at its recently expanded facility in Seelze, Germany. The company also produces ultra-high purity HF at its Geismar plant.

Chemtech has also produced ultra-high purity HF for the past 10 years at its Alorton, Ill., facility, including sub-1-parts-per-billion material for the semiconductor industry.

HYDROFLUORIC ACID--Chem-tech Products Inc.'s price increase for hydrofluoric acid (HF) was incorrectly reported in last week's issue. The correct price for HF 70 percent, technical grade, is 56c. per pound for bulk material and 65c. per pound for product in drums. Pricing for HF 49 percent, technical grade, is 40c. per pound for bulk and 49c. per pound for material in drums.

Bulk prices are based on 40,000-pound minimum tank trucks, f.o.b., Alorton, Ill., freight equalized with the nearest recognized producing point. Drum prices are based on 40,000-pound minimum truckloads, f.o.b., delivered.

HYDROGEN PEROXIDE--Effective December 1 or as contracts permit, Solvay Interox Inc. will raise its off-list prices for all grades of hydrogen peroxide, except electronic grades. Price will go up 5c. per pound in the US and C$170 per metric ton in Canada for 100 percent basis hydrogen peroxide. The company says other normal concentration and package differentials apply.

"This price increase reflects the tightening of the North American hydrogen peroxide market," says Gary Hall, president of Solvay. "The recent period of overcapacity created the need to restore pricing levels in line with current investment."

SODA ASH--Natural soda ash production in August was 833,000 metric tons, 1 percent lower than during the previous month, according to the US Geological Survey. Ending inventories were 16 percent higher than the preceding month's inventories.

Annual soda ash statistics through July show that production was down 4 percent relative to the same period in 1997. Imports fell 24 percent, exports dropped 11 percent and apparent consumption slipped 1 percent, but ending stocks were 4 percent higher.

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