Summary: On 10 Feb., 2022, Lecron Group announced that the company, together with its partners, will jointly establish a 50,000 t/a PVDF industrial chain and supporting 0.6GW green electricity project.

Recently, Lecron Industrial Development Group Co., Ltd. (Lecron Group) announced that the company signed the Investment Framework Agreement with the People's Government of Wuhai City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region jointly with Jiangxi Black Cat Carbon balck Inc., Ltd. (Jiangxi Black Cat), Southwest Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd. of China Power Engineering Consulting Group, and China Energy Engineering Group Tianjin Electric Power Construction Co., Ltd. They intended to set up a 50,000 t/a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) industrial chain and supporting 0.6GW green electricity project in the Low-carbon Industrial Park of Wuhai High-tech Industrial Development Zone in Wuhai City. Specifically, this 50,000 t/a PVDF industrial chain project will be carried out by a new company, Inner Mongolia Joint Fluorocarbon New Material Co., Ltd., jointly founded by Lecron Group and Jiangxi Black Cat.

The total investment of this project is USD1.13 billion (RMB7.20 billion), USD654.29 million (RMB4.16 billion) for industrial investment and USD478.14 million (RMB3.04 billion) for the 0.6GW green electricity project. This project is divided into two phases and the first phase is predicted to be completed within 18 months after obtaining land certificate. The People's Government of Wuhai City will provide land of around 53.33 hectares for this project.

Lecron Group stated that this cooperation will enable all parties to give full play to their resource advantages, implement the national strategic deployment of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality", improve their own industrial chain layout and further enhance market competitiveness and sustainable earning capacity.

Notably, Lecron Group is one of the a few enterprises possessing capacity of both difluorochloroethane (R142b) and PVDF domestically. As of Feb. 2022, the company owns capacity of 3,000 t/a PVDF and 20,000 t/a R142b. CCM learns that Lecron Group has a 5,000 t/a PVDF project which is still under construction and is estimated to be finished in June–July 2022; Lecron Group is handling relevant approval procedures for another 6,000 t/a PVDF and supporting 11,000 t/a R142b renovation project, which is anticipated to be completed and put into production by late 2022 or early 2023.

In addition, Lecron Group and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (CATL) signed a three-year Cooperation Framework Agreement on 11 Dec., 2021. Based on the agreement, CATL will purchase battery grade PVDF and R142b from Lecron Group. The purchase volume will depends on Lecron Group's output; the minimum purchase volume of R142b was 1,700 tonnes by the end of Dec. 2021 and the figure will be 7,200 tonnes in 2022.

Lecron Group's capacity expansion of PVDF will improve the company's production scale, earning capacity and overall competitiveness. However, the tight supply condition of PVDF will ease and prices will return to normal level as new PVDF capacity of large manufacturers will be released in succession in the next two to three years. Therefore, Lecron Group's earning capacity will be influenced if its PVDF and R142b capacity fails to be put into production as planned.