Global Aerospace Fluoropolymer Market — Rest of MEA by Polymer Type

Company Headquarters: Delaware, US Founded: 2015 Workforce: ~6,400 Company Working: The Chemours Company offers chemicals that are used in the end products and processes in numerous industries. The company also provides specialized solutions with a wide range of industrial and specialty chemicals products to the markets, and include refrigeration, coatings, plastics, air conditioning, transportation, semiconductor, general industrial, consumer electronics, and oil and gas. The product portfolio of the company includes three business segments titanium dioxide pigment, refrigerants, industrial fluoropolymer resins, and performance chemicals and intermediates. The company has three operating business segments that are Titanium Technologies, Thermal & Specialized Solutions, and Advanced Performance Materials. The business segment Titanium Technologies offers TiO2 pigment, a premium white pigment, that is used for whiteness, brightness, opacity, durability, efficiency, and protection across a variety of applications. The other business segment is Thermal & Specialized Solutions which offers thermal management solutions, refrigerants, propellants, specialty solvents, and blowing agents. The Advanced Performance Materials business segment offers high-end polymers and advanced materials that are used in unique attributes, such as low friction coefficients, weather resistance, ultraviolet and chemical resistance, extreme temperature resistance, and electrical insulation. And the Other Segment includes the Performance Chemicals and Intermediates business and Mining Solutions business. The company has 29 production facilities those are located in nine countries and serves approx. 120 countries consumers.

Kureha is a mid-cap Japanese specialty chemicals and plastics maker with a strong technology base. It sells about ¥162bn a year and has built global niche positions from in-house polymer and carbon chemistry. **Advanced Materials:** holds most of its strategic value: - PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride), used mainly as a cathode binder in lithium-ion batteries; - PPS resin through its 50:50 US joint venture with Celanese (Fortron Industries); - PGA (polyglycolic acid) dissolvable frac plugs for US shale gas; - pitch-based carbon fibre and bead-shaped activated carbon. **Specialty Plastics:** contributes stable, high-margin cash flow from the household franchise NEW Krewrap and Seaguar fluorocarbon fishing line. **Specialty Chemicals:** combines regional chlor-alkali and chlorobenzene chemistry with a small life-science arm: the fungicides metconazole and ipconazole, the kidney drug Kremezin, and a pipeline led by the fungicide carmeconazole. After a PVDF-led capex cycle failed when EV demand slowed, Kureha took ¥36.5bn of impairments in FY2025. It has since reset its strategy around a three-pillar portfolio, targeting ROE of 8% by FY2028 and 12% by FY2035. --- **Company's own description.** The FY2025 Summary describes the Kureha Group as manufacturing and selling advanced materials, chemical materials and specialty plastics as its core business. It also provides construction and facility repair for its segments, logistics, environmental solutions and other services. The corporate vision (2023) is to be "a specialty solutions company that leverages proprietary technology and contributes to a new future for society." The FY2035 plan restates the aim as becoming "a high-value-added company committed to driving value through technology and competing globally." **Business model.** Kureha is overwhelmingly a product company: - Revenue is recognised on shipment of resins, compounds, processed parts (PGA frac plugs), films, consumer goods, agrochemical active ingredients and formulations, a pharmaceutical, and commodity chlorine chemicals. - Service revenue comes from two places: - the Construction segment (Kureha Construction, mostly external civil and building contracts plus internal plant work); - **Other Operations**, which covers industrial waste treatment (Kureha Ecology Management), analysis and testing, logistics (Kureha Unyu) and medical services. - Together these service businesses made up about 21% of FY2025 external revenue (¥34.2bn of ¥161.7bn). - Licensing and royalties are not separately disclosed. Agrochemical active ingredients are commercialised largely through partner distribution and licensing arrangements, but royalty income is not broken out. - There is no subscription revenue. **Value-chain position.** - Kureha is vertically integrated from basic chlorine chemistry at Iwaki (caustic soda, hydrochloric acid and chlorinated aromatics) into fluoropolymer and chlorinated-polymer monomers. These monomers feed PVDF and PVDC (Krehalon/Krewrap). - It is a mid-stream materials supplier to battery cell makers (PVDF binder), compounders and auto/electronics component makers (PPS), and oilfield service companies and E&Ps (PGA plugs). - It is a downstream brand owner in Japanese household consumables (NEW Krewrap) and global fishing line (Seaguar). - In crop protection it acts as an originator of active ingredients and partners with distributors. **Customer types and end-markets.** - Battery cell makers: Japan, Korea and China customers for automotive NMC/LFP and energy storage systems (ESS). - Automotive and electronics tier suppliers, including PPS for optical communication components in data centres. - US shale oil and gas operators (Haynesville, Appalachia, Eagle Ford, Bakken, Permian), with planned exports to Argentina and the Middle East from FY2026. - Global agrochemical distributors. - Japanese nephrology practices and wholesalers (Kremezin). - Japanese retailers (home products). - Global anglers and tackle distributors (Seaguar). - Meat and cheese processors (Krehalon PVDC barrier film and bags; the European multilayer heat-shrink film business was exited in 2024). - Japanese municipalities and industry (waste treatment, construction). **Independent characterisation.** Kureha is best described as a portfolio of niche technology franchises attached to a regional chemical and services base: - Its profit pool is unusually concentrated in a few products. In FY2025, Specialty Plastics generated about 48% of segment core operating profit on 23% of revenue (LTMP 2035). - Its growth narrative from 2021 to 2024 rested on a single application: PVDF binder for automotive NMC batteries. - When that application faltered, through EV subsidy cuts in Europe and the US and a market shift to LFP chemistry, the economics of a ¥66–70bn capacity expansion collapsed. - The company is now an earnings-recovery and capital-allocation story. Investors are asking whether PGA can return to profit, whether PVDF can fill a new 8,000 t/y plant from 2027, and whether a long-dated life-science pipeline can rebalance the portfolio by 2035.

Dongyue Group is one of China's largest integrated fluorosilicon chemical producers. Its vertically integrated park in Zibo, Shandong runs from anhydrous hydrogen fluoride, chloromethanes and chlor-alkali, through HCFC/HFC refrigerants, to fluoropolymers (PTFE, PVDF, HFP, FEP) and organosilicon monomers and rubbers. The company states that it has the world's largest R22 capacity, and it holds meaningful positions in third-generation HFCs (R32, R125, R134a, R410a blends). Under China's Kigali-driven HFC production quota regime, those positions have turned into a scarce, licence-like asset. That is the core driver of the profit recovery: attributable profit doubled in FY2025 to RMB1.64bn, and H1 2026 rose a further 31.8%. Dongyue's option value sits in perfluorinated membranes (chlor-alkali, fuel-cell and electrolyser PEMs via the associate Future Materials), electronic-grade fluorinated liquids for data-centre liquid cooling, and ultra-high-purity PTFE for high-frequency copper-clad laminates. The investment case is a cyclical commodity chemicals business with an improving regulatory moat, a net-cash balance sheet, and AI-adjacent materials optionality that remains unproven at scale. --- ### Company's own description In its HKEX filings, the Group describes itself as an investment holding company whose subsidiaries manufacture, distribute and sell refrigerants, polymers, organic silicone, dichloromethane, PVC, liquid alkali and other chemical products. Operations are concentrated in the PRC, with export sales. The FY2025 results announcement identifies five operating and reportable segments: (i) Polymers (Fluoropolymers); (ii) Refrigerants; (iii) Organic Silicon; (iv) Dichloromethane and Liquid Alkali; and (v) Other Operations, which covers side-products of the other segments, residual PVC, property development and rental income. (Source: FY2025 annual results announcement, 25 Mar 2026; FY2024 annual results announcement.) ### Independent characterisation Dongyue is a vertically integrated commodity-to-specialty fluorochemical and silicone producer. The economic engine is an integrated chain: **Upstream inputs:** fluorspar-derived anhydrous HF, methanol, chlorine and caustic soda from its own chlor-alkali units, chloromethanes, and silicon metal. A Chinese wiki profile (MoneyDJ) states that about 60% of key refrigerant raw materials are produced in-house. **Midstream:** R22 serves both as a refrigerant (HCFC, quota-controlled and being phased down) and as the essential feedstock for TFE monomer, and therefore for PTFE, HFP and other fluoropolymers. Feedstock use of R22 is exempt from Montreal Protocol consumption limits. This dual role is a structural advantage. The Group's FY2025 report states it has the largest R22 production capacity in the world. **Downstream:** PTFE, PVDF, FEP and HFP fluoropolymers; HFC refrigerants and blends; DMC (organosilicon intermediate), 107 silicone rubber, raw and high-temperature vulcanised rubber; perfluorinated ion-exchange membranes; electronic fluorinated liquids (FC-3283). **Revenue model:** Almost entirely product sales of bulk and semi-specialty chemicals at market-referenced prices. There is no material subscription or licensing revenue. A small amount of property-development and rental income sits in "Other operations". Pricing is cyclical and spot- or contract-referenced. In refrigerants, prices are now strongly influenced by quota-constrained supply. **Value-chain position:** Mid-chain integrated producer. It sells to compounders, appliance OEMs, auto air-conditioning and refrigerant distributors, cable and coatings manufacturers, lithium-battery binder users (PVDF), silicone formulators and construction sealant makers. Historically cited customers include DuPont, Daikin, Mitsubishi, Haier, Hisense, Gree, Midea and Changhong. **End-markets:** Room and commercial air-conditioning; automotive (including NEVs, which carry larger refrigerant charges); cold chain; chemical processing equipment; wire and cable; semiconductors and electronics (high-purity PTFE, fluorinated coolants, HF); lithium-ion batteries (PVDF binder); construction (silicone sealants); hydrogen and flow-battery energy (via Future Materials membranes); and chlor-alkali (ion-exchange membranes). **Customer types:** Industrial B2B. There is no consumer channel.

AGC is a Tokyo-based materials group that grew out of Japan's first flat-glass producer into a five-segment portfolio spanning architectural glass, automotive glass, electronics, chemicals and life science. It reported FY2025 net sales of JPY 2,058.8 billion and operating profit of JPY 127.5 billion. Management runs an "ambidextrous" model: mature, asset-heavy core businesses (float glass, automotive glazing, display substrates, chlor-alkali) are expected to generate cash, while four strategic businesses (mobility, electronics materials, performance chemicals and life science CDMO) are expected to deliver growth. The company claims leading global shares in automotive glass, ETFE fluoropolymer and car-mounted cover glass, and number-two positions in TFT glass substrates and EUV mask blanks. Its problem is returns. ROE has been below 5% in each of the last four years after impairments of roughly JPY 125 billion in display (2022) and in biopharmaceutical CDMO (2024), and the stock trades at about 0.67 times book. The current agenda is ROCE repair, lower capital expenditure and a semiconductor-materials build-out. --- **What the company does.** AGC manufactures and sells glass, electronic materials, chemicals and ceramics, and provides contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services for pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Glass remains the largest activity: the group operates 26 float lines worldwide (two through an equity affiliate) and automotive glass plants on five continents. The Chemicals segment is the largest single reporting segment by revenue (28% of FY2025 sales) and the second-largest profit contributor after... more precisely, it was the largest profit contributor in FY2025 at JPY 53.0 billion, ahead of Electronics at JPY 47.5 billion (Financial Review 2025). **The company's own description.** AGC frames its mission as being "an everyday essential part of our world" through unique materials and solutions (Group Philosophy "Look Beyond", revised January 2025; Financial Review 2025). Since 2016 it has divided the portfolio into core businesses and strategic businesses, and in 2021 it adopted the long-term strategy Vision 2030, which targets a portfolio that is resilient to market swings and high in asset efficiency, growth and carbon efficiency. **Independent characterisation.** AGC is best understood as three different economic engines under one balance sheet: 1. **Cyclical, capital-intensive commodity businesses.** Float glass in Europe, Asia and Brazil, and chlor-alkali/PVC in Southeast Asia. Earnings follow construction activity, energy costs, and caustic soda and PVC spreads. These businesses hold a large share of operating assets and currently earn sub-10% ROCE. 2. **Engineered-product businesses tied to OEM cycles.** Automotive glass and display glass substrates. Both went through heavy restructuring between 2020 and 2025; Automotive reached ROCE above 10% before common-cost allocation in FY2025, and Display is targeted to reach 10% in 2027. 3. **Differentiated materials and services.** Semiconductor materials (EUV mask blanks, CMP slurry, synthetic quartz, SiC parts), optoelectronics, fluorochemicals, and CDMO. These earn the group's highest returns (Electronics and Integrated Chemicals) and its worst (Life Science, loss-making since FY2023). **Revenue model.** Almost all revenue is product sales to industrial customers. The service element is the CDMO business (Life Science, 6.5% of FY2025 sales), which earns fees for process development and batch manufacturing under project and multi-year contracts. Licensing and subscription revenue are not separately disclosed and are immaterial. The split between product and service revenue is not publicly disclosed beyond the segment figures. **Value-chain position.** AGC is an upstream and midstream materials supplier. It melts and forms glass, runs salt electrolysis and fluorine chemistry from raw salt and fluorite, and sells into fabricators, tier-one suppliers, OEMs, panel makers, chipmakers and pharmaceutical companies. In architectural glass it also has downstream processing and distribution in Japan and Europe. **Customer types and end markets.** Construction and renovation (window glass, Low-E, PVC), automotive OEMs and replacement glass distributors, display panel makers, semiconductor device and equipment makers, smartphone camera supply chains, chemical, pulp, alumina and nickel refiners (caustic soda), and pharmaceutical, biotech and agrochemical companies. Customer concentration figures are not publicly disclosed. Sources: Financial Review 2025; AGC Data Book; FY2025 results presentation (6 Feb 2026).