Moody’s rates Chemours debt speculative

The credit rating agency Moody’s has downgraded corporate debt issued by Chemours to Ba3 from Ba2 and warns that the company’s credit outlook is negative. A Ba3 rating is the bottom rung for noninvestment-grade, or speculative, debt. A further downgrade would label Chemours’s debt highly speculative. The firm faces lawsuits from states and individuals related to pollution from polyfluorinated chemicals. Moody’s expects demand for Chemours’s auto refrigerants and titanium dioxide to decline because of the shutdown of auto production due to the coronavirus.