Last week, Evonik Industries announced the location of its new precipitated silica plant in the United States. The $120M factory will be located in the Bushy Park industrial area near Charleston, South Carolina. Construction on the plant is expected to begin this month with completion by mid-2018. The company has not released the new plant’s capacity, but output will focus on highly dispersible grades of silica for use in passenger car tires, which can reduce rolling resistance and improve fuel economy. Here is the press release announcing the plant location. The company held a ground-breaking ceremony at the site last week.
December 19, 2016
Evonik acquires silica business of J.M. Huber for $630M
On December 9, 2016, Evonik Industries AG announced the acquisition of the silica business of J.M. Huber (Edison, NJ) for $630 million. The business operated as part of Huber Engineered Materials (Atlanta, GA) and had been part of Huber’s business line since the 1950s. The silica businesses of the two companies are complementary, as Evonik focuses on industrial applications, particularly tires and coatings, while Huber is a leader in dentifrice and consumer goods. For the 2016 financial year, Huber Silica is expected to achieve sales of close to $300 million, with an EBITDA of $60 million. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2017.
December 11, 2016
New silica producer starts up in India
Kiran Global Chems Limited, a chemical company based in Chennai, India), started up a new precipitated silica plant in SIPCOT Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, India in August 2016. The silica plant operates as Allied Silica and plans to produce more than 40 grades under the AlliedSil tradename for a range of applications including tires, dental, MRG, pesticides, paints, inks, cosmetics, pharma, plastic, and animal feed. Allied Silica plans to add a second phase in 2017 that will more than double its capacity. Here is the company’s contact info.
India currently ranks as the third largest market for precipitated silica in Asia, and the sixth largest overall. India’s silica market is growing 8%-9% per year.
More detail on this expansion as well as other recent and proposed expansion projects is available in the Silica Market Update, which is published twice per year by Notch Consulting. The most recent edition of the report was published in September 2016 and includes details on 21 recent and proposed capacity expansion projects for precipitated silica, as well as global and regional supply and demand (historical and forecast), market trends, and current pricing. Here is an overview of the current report.