When the European Union (EU) slashed HFC supplies by 37 percent last year, some refrigerants became scarce, prices skyrocketed, and many worried that sales of illegal imports from non-EU countries could flourish. That is exactly what has happened, according to a new report from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which states that as much as 16.3 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) bulk HFCs were illegally placed on the EU market in 2018, representing more than 16 percent of the 2018 quota. This is in addition to “illegal imports of HFC-containing equipment and illegal HFCs that are likely being smuggled under the radar of customs.”
Given the drastic cut in HFC supplies, the new black market for refrigerants in the EU is not surprising. What may be surprising to many is that the same problem appears to exist in the U.S. as well, even though HFCs are still readily available. According to the American HFC Coalition, whose members include refrigerant manufacturers Honeywell, Chemours, Arkema, and Mexichem Fluor, importers of HFC blends and R-134a of Chinese origin are successfully evading U.S. antidumping laws by using a number of creative strategies.