News from Notch Consulting, Inc.

On January 22, Cancarb Limited announced that its current President and CEO, Dave Petrie, will retire as of March 31, 2015. Mr. Petrie worked in various capacity at Cancarb for 19 years, and has been President since October 2008. Mr. Petrie’s successor as President and CEO is Ken Tate, who was previously the President of Cancarb from 2004 to 2006. He has more than 25 years of experience in the natural gas and power sectors.

Cancarb is the world’s leading producer of medium thermal black from its production plant in Alberta, Canada. In 2014, Cancarb was acquired by Tokai Carbon Co. Ltd.

Mr. Petrie has been a good friend to Notch Consulting and a steady leader at Cancarb during a turbulent time that included the global financial crisis. He will be missed, and we here at Notch wish him the best of luck in all of his future endeavors.

Here is the press release: Cancarb CEO to Retire_1_22_15

Frankfurt-based carbon black producer Orion Engineered Carbons L.L.C. has launched a new Innovation Team that will work with its technical marketing teams to boost its product offerings for both tire and non-tire markets. The new team, which is based at an Orion Applied Technology Laboratory in Germany, will focus on ensuring that the company’s efforts are aligned with customer needs. The team’s activities include both improvements to the manufacturing process as well as the development of new grades. Rubber News has details on the activities of the new team.

Rubber & Plastics News had an article the other day highlighting three raw material suppliers — a carbon black distributor, a steel cord and bead wire producer, and a mold manufacturer — currently expanding their operations in South Carolina to support the huge new investments in tire production capacity that are occurring in the state.

Intertex World Resources Inc. is a distributor of carbon black, masterbatches, natural and synthetic rubber, and process oils. The company is investing $3.2 million to establish a 100,000-sq.-ft. facility in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, about 35 miles from Charleston. The new location will focus on carbon black, which Intertex imports primarily from China and Russia. The carbon black is imported in supersacks and transloaded to hopper cars for distribution. The new distribution site will serve tire plants from Virginia to Georgia. Intertex operates about 20 warehouses across the country and has customer service centers in Georgia and Ohio. According to the company, the South Carolina facility is operational and includes a rail line and one loading dock at present, though two more loading docks will be added within the next few months.

Cabot Corporation today announced a change in its reporting segments: going forward Cabot is organized into four reporting segments: Reinforcement Materials, Performance Chemicals, Specialty Fluids, and Purification Solutions.

Reinforcement Materials now combines the rubber blacks and elastomer composites product lines. Elastomer composites previously was included in the Advanced Technologies segment, which no longer exists. This segment’s main objective is to serve the tire and industrial rubber industries.

Performance Chemicals (previously Performance Materials) includes two segments: Specialty Carbons and Formulations (which includes the specialty carbons and compounds and inkjet colorants product lines) and Metal Oxides (which includes the fumed metal oxides and aerogel product lines).

The Specialty Fluids business will now be a stand-alone reporting segment. Previously it was in the Advanced Technologies segment.

Finally, there was no change to the Purification Solutions segment, which includes the Cabot Norit Activated Carbon business.