News from Notch Consulting, Inc.

As of 7 AM, Monday, August 31, here is the status of Orion Engineered Carbon’s two US plants affected by Hurricane Laura:

1. Ivanhoe, LA
   • We now have full access to the plant
   • Both power and gas supply have been restored
   • Plant is now on startup as of yesterday [Sunday] and should be producing certain grades later today [Monday].
   • Orion rail spur was damaged but we expect such repairs to be concluded by noon today [Monday].
   • Bulk trucks shipments will resume today [Monday].
   • We expect rail shipments out of the plant to resume this afternoon [Monday].
   • There was a rumor that our plant was flooded. That is incorrect. The area did flood but our flood barrier prevented our plant from flooding.
2. Orange, TX
   • Plant has full access.
   • Plant is manned and ready to start up.
   • However, power has not been restored. Last night, our power supplier provided an update with a much longer time to restore power given the extensive damage due to the Hurricane in the area. Current estimates put power being restored at the beginning of the week of September 7^th. This may still change (earlier or later).
   • We have rented generators to allow access and loading of bulk trucks and railcars.
   • Given this extended delay in power being restored we will be revising the inventory and supply situation and communicating with you.

Overall, these reports, along with previous reports from other suppliers, indicate that long-term damage to carbon black plants in the region from the hurricane was negligible. Some short-term shortages are likely due to power outages and shipping disruptions.

As of Sunday night, Hurricane Laura had been downgraded to a Tropical Depression and was moving along the coast of Nova Scotia toward Newfoundland. The storm made landfall at 1:00 AM on August 27th at Cameron, Louisiana as a strong Category 4 Hurricane with winds as high as 150 MPH and a powerful storm surge. The storm caused extensive damage and the loss of power for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. However, initial reports from carbon black producers in the area indicate that flood damage was minimal as the area was better prepared and the dikes held.

Cabot Corporation put out this statement to customers on Friday, August 28th:

In the aftermath of Hurricane Laura, we are happy to report that all our employees are safe and unharmed. Our manufacturing facilities in both Franklin, LA (Canal) and Ville Platte, LA sustained only minor wind and rain damage. Our employees will begin returning to both sites today and focus on clean up and restarting operations. We expect to return to normal operations by the weekend and shipments on Monday. Our thoughts remain with those in our communities that were greatly impacted by the storm.

Tokai Carbon CB reported that its plant in Addis, Louisiana never lost power and was able to restart on Friday, August 28th at full capacity.  

On Monday, August 24, Orion Engineered Carbons issued the following statement to customers regarding preparations for the storms expected this week.

Orion Engineered Carbons Monday, August 24, 2020 Update to Customers Regarding Hurricanes Laura and Marco

In light of 2 tropical systems forecasted to arrive in the Southern LA area starting on Monday, August 24th, Orion’s Ivanhoe, Louisiana facility was safely taken down over this past weekend and the storm gate was installed on Sunday, August 23rd. Tropical system Marco will be impacting the Ivanhoe area over the next 24 – 48 hours.  Tropical system Laura’s current uncertainty of landfall and intensity will very likely require this plant to stay down and closed until after Laura has cleared the Gulf Coast. 

Orion’s Orange, Texas facility is being taking down on Monday, August 24th, afternoon and will close its access gates shortly thereafter. This plant will also very likely stay down until Laura has cleared the Gulf Coast.

Restart dates will be determined upon evaluation of the sites, most likely to be performed after Thursday, August 27th. The timing of this evaluation will vary depending on where Laura makes landfall, access to the site and supply sources such as electrical power.

Please also note that we expect rail delays on any railcars shipped late last week that are on an easterly route as the railroads have now closed flood gates both in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas.  The resumption of rail movement will not occur until after both storms have cleared the area and track/bridge damage assessment has been completed and any actual damages repaired.

For further information about your specific order(s), please contact your Orion Customer Service Representative and/or Sales Representative.

We will provide periodical updates as the situation develops over the course of this week.

With a market presence in 35+ nations, Phillips Carbon Black Limited is India’s largest carbon black producer, with manufacturing units in Durgapur (Eastern India), Kochi (Southern India) and Palej and Mundra (Western India.) Phillips manufactures and supplies carbon black found in eyeliners, laserjet printers, Iphones and even BMW cars. During the pandemic, Phillips faced challenges maintaining operational efficiency, however the company successfully addressed these challenges with the support of technology.

“With our vendor support by IBM, we have embarked on a long term journey with successful projects such as cloud migration, SAP S/4 HANA deployment, remote monitoring setup and counting more. Amid the initial stage of lockdown pan India, we were able to address overnight hardware and software requests of our employees. Our partnership together has strengthened the business with many technology driven benefits…”

Dipan Sengupta, Head- IT, Philips Carbon Black Ltd

To protect users during remote work from home, Phillips invested in a layered security approach to ensure there were no intrusions or threats, and maintained 100% availability of the infrastructure, even safely conducting annual board meetings and audit committee meetings online.

We are a listed company and recently all our major transactional decisions were made online, which were supported by the core IT setup. As we were fully equipped with IT support and availability of applications which are secured, our workflow became seamless. All of this was possible because of our early investments in right technology and infrastructure”

Dipan Sengupta, Head- IT, Philips Carbon Black Ltd

Technology also plays a role in helping manufacturing plants operate efficiently with a system that helps monitor any abnormalities of process. With the collaboration of internal IT and IBM teams, the plants were fully operational, and the company maintained sanitation, thermal testing and social distancing regulations. Phillips has embedded technology at every functional process, resulting in growth and operational efficiency during the pandemic.