News from Notch Consulting, Inc.

August 21, 2022

Notch publishes new report: World Specialty Blacks

Filed under: Carbon Black — Tags: , , , , — Notch @ 8:00 am

Notch Consulting has published a new multi-client market research report, World Specialty Blacks 2022, which covers the global market for premium grades of carbon black used in plastics, inks, paints, batteries, and other non-rubber applications. The report provides historical data from 2011 to 2021 and forecasts for all years from 2022 through 2030. Data provided include specialty blacks demand, market value, production capacity by company and plant, capacity expansion projects, major grades & product lines, and market share by company.

World Specialty Blacks 2022 covers the following product segments:

  • Specialty furnace blacks (i.e., furnace blacks used in non-rubber uses)
  • Modified furnace blacks (e.g., Ensaco)
  • Thermal blacks (including medium and fine thermal black)
  • Acetylene blacks
  • Gas & Lamp blacks
  • Superconductive blacks (e.g., Ketjenblack)
  • Carbon nanotubes (including single-wall and multiwall carbon nanotubes)

Markets covered include:

  • Plastics (Film, Injection/Blow Molding, Wire/Cable, Pipe, Engineering, Fiber)
  • Conductive Polymers (Wire & Cable Semicon, ESD, Conductive Plastics)
  • Ink & Toners (Newsprint, Publication & Packaging Inks, Toners, Inkjets)
  • Batteries (Lithium-Ion, Lead Acid, Dry Cell, Next Generation)
  • Other Markets (Adhesives, Mulch, Rubber Goods, Graphite/Carbon, Insulation)

Companies discussed in the report include Asahi Carbon (Bridgestone), Birla Carbon, Black Diamond Material Science (Black Cat), Cabot Corporation, CSRC Group, Denka Company, Hexing Chemical Industry, Imerys Graphite & Carbon, Jiangsu CNano Technology, Ketjen Black International Company, Mitsubishi Chemical, Monolith Materials, OCSiAl Group, Omsk Carbon Group, Orion Engineered Carbons, PCBL Limited, Shanxi Yongdong Chemistry Industry, TAKREER, Tokai Carbon, Unipetrol, a.s., and Zhongyi Coal Chemical Industry.

The report is distributed as a printable PDF and includes a separate Excel file with extensive supplemental data. World Specialty Blacks was last updated in 2017. Contact Notch at info @ notchconsulting.com for details and subscription rates.

June 4, 2015

Sid Richardson announces new carbon black plant in Mexico

Filed under: Carbon Black — Tags: — Notch @ 3:18 pm

Today, Sid Richardson Carbon and Energy Co. (Fort Worth, Texas) announced plans to build a new carbon black plant in Mexico, with startup scheduled for 2017. The exact location is yet to be decided, as are the capacity and grade mix. Sid Richardson is the largest carbon black producer in the United States, with three plants and 445,000 tons/year of capacity. This will be Sid’s first carbon black plant outside the US.

Below is the full text of the press release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

June 4, 2015 – Fort Worth, TX – Sid Richardson Carbon and Energy (SRCE) has begun the planning phase for the construction of a carbon black production facility in Mexico. “Based on the current demand for carbon black in North America and projections for the next 5 years alone, we are viewing this venture as a necessary move to serve our customers,” says Bill Jones, company President and CEO. “We hope to have this new facility producing carbon black in 2017,” Jones adds.

Additional information about this new facility is forthcoming on the company website at www.sidrich.com. Questions can be directed to inquiries@sidrich.com

Sid Richardson Carbon & Energy is a carbon black manufacturer, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. The company produces carbon black that is used in the production of tires, automotive parts, rubber roofing membrane, ink, coatings, and other manufactured products.

April 21, 2015

Monolith Materials building new carbon black plant in Nebraska using natural gas feedstock

Filed under: Carbon Black — Tags: — Notch @ 11:25 am

A new company called Monolith Materials (Redwood City, CA) is building a carbon black plant in Hallam, Nebraska that will use a new, patented process to produce carbon black and by-product hydrogen from natural gas. The hydrogen will be used by the Nebraska Public Power District, Nebraska’s largest electric utility, to fire a new boiler at the company’s Sheldon Station plant, replacing an existing coal-fired boiler. The project is expected to break ground in 2016 and be completed in 2019.

Monolith is backed by KERN Partners, a leading energy sector private equity firm, and First Green Partners, a leading investment company focused on industrial technologies in energy, agriculture, and materials. Rob Hanson is the company’s co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer. Monolith’s leadership team also includes some big names from the carbon black world. William J. Brady, Jr. is the Executive Chairman at Monolith and a Member of the Board of Directors. Previously, Mr. Brady was Executive Vice President of Cabot Corporation, where he spent 23 years. Another Cabot alum is Roscoe Taylor, who serves as Vice President of Engineering for Monolith. Mr. Taylor began his career at Cabot, where he worked in R&D developing improved production processes for carbon black, participated in the startup of new carbon black plants, and led the special blacks manufacturing team.

More information here. Additional articles here and here.

Here is the company’s promotional video.

March 23, 2015

Carbon Black Asia Pacific Conference 2015 to be held in Japan in November

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Notch @ 8:00 am

The Carbon Black Asia Pacific Conference 2015 will be held from November 4-6, 2015 at the Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu in Yokohama, Japan. This three-day event is one of the essential meetings of the global carbon black industry. The conference is sponsored by the Japan Carbon Black Association and chaired by Mr. Hajime Nagasaka, President of the JCBA and President/CEO of Tokai Carbon Co. Ltd. Notch Consulting is proud to be delivering one of the keynote addresses, covering global trends in carbon black supply and demand. Other keynote speakers are David Tauber of Tauber Oil and Katsuya Yamamoto of Nissan Motor, while other speakers include Tomohiro Kusano of Bridgestone, Li Bingyan of the China Carbon Black Institute, and Vince Guercio of CTC International. In addition, the program will include an array of papers related to carbon black manufacturing, markets, and applications. The Asia Pacific carbon black conference is held every other year since 1993 and was last held in Japan in 1999, when it was held in Hayama.

Yokohama Japan 13

June 26, 2008

Columbian Adjusts Carbon Black Surcharge, Moves from Quarterly to Monthly Contracts

Filed under: Carbon Black — Tags: , , — Notch @ 3:54 pm

On Monday, June 23, Columbian Chemicals issued a press release announcing an adjustment to its previously announced program to add a surcharge to all carbon black products shipped in North America.

The previously announced surcharge of $0.08 per pound, which was implemented on June 1, 2008, will be reduced to $0.06 per pound effective July 1, 2008. Though the surcharge will be reduced, prices will not actually fall, since the surcharge reduction is occurring in tandem with the normal quarterly price adjustment initiated with the beginning of the new quarter on July 1. The surcharge was introduced to close the lag between contract feedstock adjusters (which are determined by the previous quarter’s average price) and actual current feedstock costs. The surcharge will be reviewed again in late July and adjusted accordingly for the month of August.

Columbian also announced that it will move all of its contracts from a quarterly to a monthly price adjustment mechanism to more accurately reflect the rapid changes in raw material costs. Under this monthly mechanism, feedstock price changes — both increases and decreases — will be passed through to the customer the following month. According to the announcement, “The “quarter-lag” is no longer workable in today’s environment.”

Below is a copy of the press release.
columbian-chemicals-press-release-6-25-08

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