News from Notch Consulting, Inc.

Safic-Alcan Deutschland and Safic-Alcan Belgium, subsidiaries of the Safic-Alcan Group, have announced an extended distribution agreement with Orion Engineered Carbons effective October 1st.

The new agreement will focus on distribution to rubber customers and will include the regions DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and Benelux, in addition to the already-covered regions of France and the UK.

“With this step, we underline our commitment to the rubber industry and are confident that the excellent service offered by Safic-Alcan is ideally suited to the performance of our products,” stated Udo Engels, Vice President EMEA, Rubber Carbon Black, Orion Engineered Carbons GmbH.

The full press release can be found here(pdf).

Birla Carbon announced today that it has started operations at its greenfield carbon black facility in Jining, China.

Said Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group, “While the Aditya Birla Group has always had a presence in China, we have not leveraged the potential that both we as a Group and China as a marketplace had to offer. We are delighted to have finally taken the right step to invest in a meaningful way in this great country of culture, history and civilization.” He further stated, “The Jining plant is well ahead of its time, whether it be the manufacturing processes involved or the environmental standards it follows. Everything that we have learned over our 150 plus years of manufacturing carbon black around the world has been poured into this facility. It is, in a manner of speaking, our magnum opus.”

China is one of the largest and fastest-growing markets for carbon black with a forecast to grow at a CAGR of 7% by 2021. The new production plant will exclusively cater to the Chinese customer base and will accommodate the growing demands for superior quality, technical solutions and performance.

The Birla Carbon Jining plant will produce traditional ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) grades and specific Birla Carbon grades for customers in China. The ASTM grades will focus on the tire industry while many of the Birla Carbon grades will support mechanical rubber goods and other customer requirements.

The plant, which currently has an installed capacity of 120,000 metric tons, will expand to 240,000 metric tons in phase 2.

Read full press release here.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all of the people affected by Hurricane Harvey. The images of not only the devastation but also the resilience and generosity of the people of Texas and Louisiana is humbling.

Here is an update on the effect that the hurricane is having on the US carbon black industry. Concern has been high as nearly 80% of US carbon black capacity is located in Texas and Louisiana and supplies in the US market are already tight.

As of Thursday morning, Harvey — now downgraded to a Tropical Depression — was over northern Louisiana on a northeasterly route that will take it through northern Mississippi and central Tennessee and into West Virginia/southern Ohio by Friday evening. The storm made its final landfall around 3:30 AM CDT Wednesday morning near Cameron, Louisiana, which is about 240 miles west of New Orleans.

The path of the storm raised concerns about four CB plants:

• Orion Engineered Carbons’ plants in Orange, TX and Ivanhoe, LA
• Cabot Corporation’s plant in Franklin, LA, and
• Columbian Chemicals’ plant in Franklin, LA

Of these, Orion’s Orange, TX plant was most directly in the storm’s path. On Wednesday afternoon, company sources indicated that Orange had to be shut down temporarily due to an external power outage. Around noon on Thursday, company sources said that power would be restored on Thursday afternoon and the plant restart process would begin immediately thereafter. The plant itself sustained no damage, and raw material supplies are secure. The three coastal Louisiana plants (Orion Ivanhoe, Cabot Franklin, and Columbian Franklin), which are grouped close together just west of New Orleans, were largely unaffected.

Additionally, two US CB suppliers with office space in Houston reported no flooding and expected office hours to resume soon.

With carbon black capacity largely unaffected, the longer term effects of the storm relate to three issues:

1. Feedstock issues: more than 30% of US refining capacity was directly affected by the storm, particularly in the Houston, Corpus Christi, and Baytown areas but also in Beaumont and Port Arthur. Potential issues include flooding, disrupted crude oil supplies, and power outages. Despite these issues, as of Thursday, none of the CB suppliers I spoke with had been notified of potential problems with feedstock deliveries, but obviously those issues may still arise as refining capacity is assessed.

2. Other raw material issues: It is possible that the storm may cause shortages of other key raw materials, including butadiene and synthetic rubber, and that may cause problems for tire plants that would affect carbon black deliveries.

3. Logistical issues: Shipping channels, rail lines, and trucking routes have been affected by flooding. No word yet on severity, but obviously these issues could reverberate down the entire supply chain over the next few weeks.

With the purchase of the 5% stake it had not already owned, Tokai Carbon Corp. has acquired full ownership of Thai Tokai Carbon Product Co. Ltd. (TCP).

TCP was established in 1989 as a carbon black manufacturing and selling company through a joint venture consisting of several companies in Thailand.

In 1990, Tokai Carbon started a technology licensing agreement with TCP and acquired a 25% interest. It subsequently acquired 95% ownership.

Making TCP a wholly owned.

Sourced article found here (subscription required).