On June 18, Sid Richardson announced a price increase for all carbon black products effective for all shipments on or after August 1, 2018, or as contracts allow. Due to rising operating and logistic costs associated with carbon black production in North America, the increase is necessary to maintain the high service levels that our customers have come to expect, the company said in a press release. Invoice prices on all carbon blacks will increase by $110/MT.
Orion Engineered Carbons has announced a price increase for carbon black sold in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, beginning Aug. 1, or as contracts permit. Prices will be adjusted between $82 and $107 per metric ton, according to the firm. According to Orion, the price increases are being implemented to offset operating expenses which continue to rise because of high utilization rates and the desire to continuously invest in its manufacturing network.
On June 1, Cabot Corporation announced a price increase for all carbon black product in its Reinforcement Materials segment sold in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. The increase will be effective as of July 1, 2018, or as customer contracts allow.
Cabot said that it is experiencing persistent rising costs associated with high utilization rates, increased operating and regulatory costs, and higher logistics expenses in the EMEA region. Despite ongoing efforts to offset these costs, Cabot will increase prices by 80 €/MT, in addition to any applicable index-related adjustments, for all rubber carbon black products including Black Pearls®, CRX™, Endure™, Propel®, Regal®, Vulcan®, Sterling® and Spheron® carbon black grades.
On June 1, New York-based private equity firm SK Capital Partners announced the acquisition of SI Group (Schenectady, NY), a leading supplier of plastic additives and rubber chemicals. The business will be merged with SK’s own Addivant business. The Addivant business is the former antioxidant and light stabilizer business of Chemtura, which SK acquired in 2013. No purchase price for the SI Group deal was announced; the transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2018.
SI Group, which was founded in 1906 as Schenectady Varnish Co., has more than $1 billion in sales and employs more than 2,800 at 20 locations worldwide. Its product lines include plasticizers, flame retardants and antioxidants. It is also the world’s leading supplier of rubber tackifiers.
Barry Siadat, SK co-founder and managing partner, said in a news release that “by combining the complementary strengths of SI Group and Addivant, we will be creating a global technology and industry leader in plastic, lubricant, oilfield and rubber additives.”
At the Movin’ On 2018 sustainable mobility conference this week, Michelin announced two new goals: to use 80 percent sustainable materials in the manufacture of its tires and to invest in technology to make its tires 100 percent recyclable by 2048.
Today, the world-wide recovery rate for tires is 70 percent and the recycling rate is 50 percent. Michelin tires are currently made using 28 percent sustainable materials (26 percent bio-sourced materials like natural rubber, sunflower oil, limonene etc., and 2 percent recycled materials such as steel or recycled powdered tires). For a sustainable future, Michelin is investing in high technology recycling technologies to be able to increase this content to 80 percent sustainable materials.
One such investment was acquiring Lehigh Technologies Inc. late last year, a company that transforms the rubber from end-of-life tires into material that can be used in new tires, and other products. The micronized rubber powders (MRP) that Lehigh creates can be substituted for oil- and rubber-based feedstocks in lots of applications, including tires.
“If we achieve these ambitions, we would save 33 million barrels of oil each year,” said Cyrille Roget, Michelin’s technical and scientific communication director, “That is equivalent to the entire annual oil consumption of France.”
Michelin admits it needs the rest of the tire industry to join in the mission. “This is not something that we can achieve alone,” says Roget, calling both of these goals “major ambitions.”
Saudi Arabian National Tire Co. (NTC) has awarded a contract to South Korea’s Samsung Engineering for the engineering, procurement, and construction of its planned $1.6 billion tire plant in Saudi Arabia.
NTC plans to build the factory in Jubail, an industrial city in the eastern part of the kingdom on the Persian Gulf. Production is expected to start by year-end 2020. The plant will be rated at 20 million units a year capacity, with a staff of about 4,000 employees.
NTC is an initiative of Fahad Bin Abdul-Rahman Bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family.
China’s Triangle Group Co. Ltd. is one step closer to breaking ground on its passenger and light truck tire factory in Edgecombe County, east of Rocky Mount, N.C.
The government in China signed off on agreements and approvals to fund the first phase of the $580 million project, a passenger and light truck tire plant with capacity for 6 million tires annually, according to Manny Cicero, CEO of Triangle Tire USA, and Marketing Director Mary Ma. All that remains is the securing of several site permits, including one for air quality, before construction can commence, they said in an interview at the company’s office in Franklin on May 22.
Triangle announced late last year that it plans to build two tire plants in the U.S. on a 1,449-acre plot of land in Edgecombe County. Phase one will be a passenger and light truck tire plant. Groundbreaking for the second plant, a 1 million tire capacity truck and bus tire facility, will begin six months after the start of construction on the first plant. The factories will share a rubber mixing facility located between them, Cicero said.
The target date for phase one completion is April 2020.
Referenced article found here.
Enviro has received a follow-up order on EnviroCB from an international tire manufacturer. The order is Enviro’s single largest so far, valued at over 100,000 SEK. Revenues are expected in Q2 2018.
The international tire manufacturer made the first order at the beginning of the year after thorough material tests. The delivered EnviroCB will be used for solid tires manufactured in Sri Lanka.
“Receiving a follow-up order of a much larger volume demonstrates both the quality of material and the market’s growing need for reclaimed carbon black. This is one of several major solid tire manufacturers where we see growing interest, in addition to the several tire manufacturers we have received positive feedback from,” says Thomas Sörensson, CEO of Enviro.
In addition to the expansion at Cilegon, Cabot is investing approximately $50 million in debottlenecking projects and operational improvements across 18 of its carbon black facilities. This program will provide an additional 150,000 metric tons of increased carbon black capacity which will be available for tire, industrial rubber and specialty carbon customers. To date, Cabot has completed approximately one-third of this capacity expansion, with full completion expected by 2021. These investments will increase Cabot’s global carbon black capacity to approximately 2.5 million metric tons.
Rubber & Plastics News reports that Michelin North America Inc. has developed a 26-inch version of its non-pneumatic Tweel tire/wheel hybrid for use on ultra-terrain vehicles. Michelin Tweel Technologies, an MNA division, says the X Tweel UTV is intended for use in debris-laden areas including construction, agriculture, mining, emergency response and park sites. The X Tweel UTV was originally designed for light-tactical vehicles used in military operations. The wheel is a single unit that replaces the vehicles’ pneumatic tire/wheel/valve assemblies, Michelin said. The Tweel unit also eliminates the need to carry spare tires, tools or repair kits.
I spotted these tires “in the field” a few weeks ago when I was watching the season 2 premier of HBO’s Westworld. I took these screenshots. (Yes, I watch sci-fi shows for the tires — maybe I’ve been doing this job too long.)
Fig 1. Screenshot from Westworld, season 2, episode 1, “Journey into Night,” written by Lisa Joy & Roberto Patino, directed by Richard J. Lewis, airdate April 22, 2018, Home Box Office, Inc.
Fig 2. Screenshot (detail) from Westworld, season 2, episode 1, “Journey into Night,” written by Lisa Joy & Roberto Patino, directed by Richard J. Lewis, airdate April 22, 2018, Home Box Office, Inc.
