News from Notch Consulting, Inc.

Effective August 1, 2011, it is expected that the divestiture of the carbon black business from Evonik Corporation will be complete. Announced earlier this year, Evonik divested itself of the Carbon Black Business Unit and sold it to affiliates of Rhone Capital and Triton. The new company will be known as Orion Engineered Carbons. All of the silica-based products (Aerosil, Aeroxide, Acematt, Sipernat) will continue to be manufactured and sold by Evonik Inorganic Materials.

The company does not expect any interruption in the supply of carbon blacks or in customer relationships with the sales, marketing and technical personnel involved with the carbon blacks as a result of this divestiture. Likewise, there will be no changes in manufacturing sites, methods or equipment associated with this announcement. It is strictly a change in ownership.

The European Commission has cleared the acquisition of German chemical company Evonik’s carbon black business under the EU Merger Regulation. The approval the EU Merger Regulation means that the deal is not considered one that will significantly alter the structure of the carbon black market or significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area. “The transaction would not significantly alter the structure of the market for carbon black as neither Rhone Capital nor Triton has any ownership interests in any business that manufactures or sells carbon black,” the Commission said in a statement. The sale to Rhône Capital was announced in April 2011.

Tyrepress notes that one of the acquiring companies, Triton, has an interest in a supplier of carbon black oil, but that did not change the Commission’s findings.

As one of the investment funds run by Triton controls Rütgers, a supplier of carbon black oil (which is the chemical intermediary product used to produce carbon black), the Commission also investigated the vertical relationship arising from the proposed transaction. The investigation confirmed that the transaction “will neither result in the shutting out of competing carbon black producers as there are many alternative suppliers of carbon black oil on the market, nor in the shutting out of other suppliers of carbon black oil as there are sufficient alternative outlets for their carbon black oil production.”

Triton bought coal tar company Rutgers Chemicals from Evonik Industries in 2007.

The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental lobby group based in California, has issued a formal letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency, informing the Agency of its intention to sue for violations of Section 304 of the Clean Water Act in relation to pollution by black carbon.

The group’s full letter is available here.

Some media sources have reported that the letter refers to carbon black, but readers should note that “black carbon” is not synonymous with “carbon black.” Black carbon is soot released into the atmosphere by the incomplete combustion of fuels or biomass, whereas carbon black is an industrial filler and pigment manufactured from heavy residual fuel oil.