Would Temporary Suspension of Continental Carbon Parent Plant Impact US Carbon Black Supply?

Texas, USA: It has been recently confirmed that the China Synthetic Rubber Corp. (CSRC), a Taipei-based company, which is also the parent company of Continental Carbon, is planning to make some adjustments to its Carbon Black supply in the US. As one of its Carbon Black manufacturing facilities at Phenix, Alabama, is under temporary suspension, the company will try to meet up the US's need for Carbon Black by improving the capacity utilization rates of its other two plants in the US-based at Ponca and Sunray. Earlier, CSRC confirmed that the Plant at Phenix, Alabama, would be under temporary suspension as the plant did not meet its regulatory requirement for emission reduction.

According to the CSRC statement, the corporation would need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on environmental protection measures at the Phenix plant. It continued that delays in the building timeline and steadily rising material prices on global markets had driven up costs. The group also stated that enhancements would not be made at the facility since the operating return rate was "not in line with the advantages." Continental Carbon's other US facilities in Ponca City, Oklahoma, and Sunray, Texas, will help meet Carbon Black demand in the North American market, according to CSRC.

The Phenix facility produced 30% of Continental Carbon's US output, according to CSRC. However, according to the company's statement, the Ponca and Sunray plants' capacity utilization rates for carbon black could still be higher. The impact on the North American operations "will not be considerable" as a result, according to CSRC, once the production efficiency of the two remaining plants has been optimized. In addition, CSRC announced that a Carbon Black plant now being built in Turkey and a facility that just opened in India will strengthen its worldwide supply network.

As per ChemAnalyst anticipation, "CSRC would manage their Carbon Black supply in the US by making few required adjustments at their other two plants. Hence, the US would not have to witness a supply shortfall for Carbon Black as far as CSRC is concerned."