ACR Journal

CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai acrjournal.uk 21 REFRIGERANTS Initial disruption and problems with pre-charged That aside, it is early days, and because the industry had ample time to prepare for the changes, disruption in England, Scotland, and Wales has been kept to a minimum. Of course, it hasn’t helped that we’ve been o work and in lockdown for more than a year. There’s been some disruption at the ports. This cannot be blamed on the quota system, but more our departure from the EU at a multi-layered level, and the transportation of gases has been slowed as a result. The big question is will we have enough virgin refrigerant for our home market? In all, 7.3 million tonnes of CO2e gases have been allocated to the cooling industry, but is this pitched at the right level to meet demand in Great Britain? For many of us, that’s the great unknown. No industry likes uncertainty, and clearly, only time will tell. We have also lost the advantage of being part of the free movement of refrigerants within the EU. Although there was no tracking of the amount passing between the United Kingdom and the continent, historically, this would have undoubtedly contributed to the overall refrigerant pot available to the UK. The good news is that there has been no shortage of refrigerants so far, but there has been a slight increase in price due to this year’s F-Gas step-downs leading to a cut of 29 per cent in the availability of the virgin product. One area of diŠculty relates to the import of cooling equipment containing refrigerant into Great Britain. Traders have to account for the refrigerant in the pre-charged equipment they are importing. Many of these businesses buy from Asia and then export to the EU. With free movement of goods within the EU gone, they now have to pay twice for the privilege of crossing borders. This is making them less competitive, and unsurprisingly these businesses are not happy with the current situation. Simplifying the process Looking at the market in general, some supply chains have lengthened, and it may be taking a week or two longer for goods to arrive. At A-Gas, we are limiting the movements of refrigerants between our sites on the Continent and Great Britain because of the complexities of the quota system. They are operating as separate entities. We do this to maintain the smooth running of the business. The Northern Ireland protocol has created some diŠculties too. Northern Ireland stayed within the EU F-Gas Regulation system, but we have customers in the province that we have historically supplied from mainland Great Britain. Under the new system, we would need an EU quota to service customers in Northern Ireland, which increases the complexity of the whole operation. We have chosen to service Northern Ireland from our German site to keep it within the EU quota system and simplify the process. A further complication is the repatriation of used refrigerants classified as waste. Historically it was never an issue to bring these gases back to mainland Great Britain but now it requires an import quota to move them across the Irish Sea. This again is a tricky issue, so we have decided that waste from Northern Ireland should be sent to our reclamation site in the Netherlands to keep it within the same F-Gas quota system. Making changes More change could also be on the way. Later in the year, the F-Gas Regulation will go out for consultation for further amendment in 2023. This review will happen on both sides of the English Channel, and who knows, we could end up with the two F-Gas systems going in diering directions. At A-Gas, there’s no doubt that our exit from the EU and the pandemic has changed the way we operate, but I’m happy to say business continues as usual. The pandemic has aected our ability to travel as a lockdown would, but I am grateful to our employees for showing great flexibility in these diŠcult times. Working from home has become the norm for some. With their help and the assistance of everyone who has stayed on-site or on the road, a seamless supply chain has been maintained. With the vaccination programme in the UK making good progress, we are more positive in our outlook than we were at the beginning of the year.