Chemours Breaks Ground on New U.S. Production Facility for Opteon™ Refrigerants

WILMINGTON, Del., Feb. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Chemours Company (Chemours) (NYSE: CC), a global chemistry company with leading market positions in titanium technologies, fluoroproducts and chemical solutions, announced today that it has broken ground on the company's new HFO-1234yf production facility.  The new facility, located at the Chemours Corpus Christi plant in Ingleside, Texas, will triple the company's world-leading capacity for its HFO-1234yf-based-products, which are low global warming potential (GWP) and better for the environment. Chemours will sell the low global warming potential refrigerant products and blends manufactured at this new plant under its Opteon™ trade name.

"This new facility represents a significant step forward for Chemours, as it demonstrates our commitment to providing low GWP solutions to the refrigerants industry," said Mark Vergnano, Chemours president and CEO.  "We see our Opteon™ products as the future for this industry since they provide the optimal balance of properties necessary to transition the world away from HFCs, the previous generation of refrigerants."

"We've already seen tremendous adoption of our Opteon™ low GWP refrigerants; and, it's estimated that by the end of 2017, there will be over 50 million cars on the road globally using low GWP HFO-1234yf refrigerant," said Paul Kirsch, President of Chemours Fluoroproducts. "Our market projections also suggest that our Opteon™ refrigerants could be used in well over 10,000 supermarket and commercial refrigeration systems by 2020." 

This new facility will use an innovative, patented process to manufacture Opteon^™ YF, Chemours'HFO-1234yf mobile refrigerant product used in automotive air conditioning, and Opteon^™ refrigerant blends which are used across a range of applications. This investment will create the world's largest facility for manufacturing hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs), and the location will allow Chemours to efficiently serve the growing market in North America and Europe, as well as the rest of the world. Currently, Chemours is the capacity leader for HFO-1234yf-based products, a position that is expected to be maintained as a result of this investment.

The Opteon™ refrigerants portfolio from Chemours represents a breakthrough line of low GWP solutions. They were developed to help meet more stringent global regulations while maintaining or improving performance versus incumbent products. Chemours has commercialized Opteon™ refrigeration products for use in automotive air conditioning, stationary and transport refrigeration and chillers. The first Opteon™ product commercialized was Opteon™ YF, or HFO-1234yf, for automotive air conditioning. This refrigerant was developed to enable automakers around the world to meet EU requirements, and it has a GWP of less than one.  The company has a development pipeline of additional Opteon™ solutions for stationary air conditioning, foam blowing agents and waste heat recovery.

For more than 85 years, the fluorochemicals business within Chemours has provided innovative refrigeration and foam blowing agent solutions to meet changing customer needs. Opteon™ low GWP products are the latest innovation, offering a long-term solution for our customers along with drastically reduced impact to the environment. The global adoption of Opteon™ low GWP products represents a clear path toward moving the world away from HFCs, which have high global warming potential.

For more information, visit us at Opteon.com.

About The Chemours Company
The Chemours Company (NYSE: CC) helps create a colorful, capable and cleaner world through the power of chemistry.  Chemours is a global leader in titanium technologies, fluoroproducts and chemical solutions, providing its customers with solutions in a wide range of industries with market-defining products, application expertise and chemistry-based innovations.  Chemours ingredients are found in plastics and coatings, refrigeration and air conditioning, mining and oil refining operations and general industrial manufacturing.  Our flagship products include prominent brands such as Teflon^™, Ti-Pure^™, Krytox^™, Viton^™, Opteon^™, Freon^™, and Nafion^™.  Chemours has approximately 8,000 employees across 35 manufacturing sites serving more than 5,000 customers in North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe.  Chemours is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and is listed on the NYSE under the symbol CC.  For more information please visit chemours.com or follow Chemours on Twitter at @chemours.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, which often may be identified by their use of words like "plans," "expects," "will," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "anticipates" or other words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements address, among other things, our anticipated future operating and financial performance, business plans and prospects, transformation plans, resolution of environmental liabilities, litigation and other contingencies, plans to increase profitability, our ability to pay or the amount of any dividend, and target leverage that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are based on certain assumptions and expectations of future events which may not be realized. The matters discussed in these forward-looking statements also are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements, as further described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015. Chemours undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements.

CONTACT:

MEDIA:
Ted Sikorski
Global Communications Leader
+1.302.773.2768
ted.sikorski@chemours.com

INVESTORS:
Alisha Bellezza
Treasurer & Director of Investor Relations
+1.302.773.2263
investor@chemours.com

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SOURCE The Chemours Company