Volume of illegal imports is “like not having any regulations”
26th January 2020
EUROPE: The volume of illegal refrigerant flooding the European market is described as “like not having any regulations, or worse,” by the head of one of the leading refrigerant manufacturers.
In an article on the Financial Times website, Daniel Martínez-Valle, chief executive of Orbia, parent company of Koura – the new name of refrigerant manufacturer Mexichem – asks: “What’s the use of signing commitments, adhering to protocols and going to Davos? It’s useless if we don’t have the capacity to enforce this.”
Despite previous European Commission claims that the level of imports in contravention of the F-gas regulations is “small” and “insignificant”, the Financial Times report estimates that the illegal imports are costing refrigerant manufacturers about $500m per year in lost profits.
