A lot of the NOVEC line is/was manufactured in Belgium. That plant was shut down for several months because high levels of PFAS was found in the surrounding area.
They cleaned it up and restarted the plant, only to announce they’re exiting the business by 2025.
I agree that the regulatory issue was their main motivator for shutting down PFAS manufacturing. Their plants (like Belgium) probably require significant maintenance and improvements, meaning millions in CAPEX. Money they probably don’t want to spend on products that will be globally banned within the decade.
So all the OEMs in China signed a pledge to maintain ‘normal’ pricing. They’re openly colluding to fix car prices when they were dropping quickly as a result of supply and demand renormalizing.