Upstream suppliers to the tyre manufacturing industry Nynas, Cabot and Evonik have received some of the top ratings in the 2021 EcoVadis auditing process. Specifically, these three firms all ranked in the top 1 per cent of their peers, earning platinum status. Meanwhile, carbon black supplier Birla Carbon received the EcoVadis’ gold accreditation.
Birla Carbon has appointed Dr Ann Schoeb as chief research and development officer. Dr Schoeb will have full responsibility for research and development work at Birla Carbon and will join the company’s senior management team. She reports to John Loudermilk, chief operating officer.
Birla Carbon, one of the world’s largest carbon black producers, has announced that all 16 of manufacturing facilities across the globe have received the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) certification. This makes Birla Carbon the first and only global carbon black manufacturer to achieve this certification.
Following a three-year joint development programme, Birla Carbon and GranBio Technologies are making their patent-pending Nanocellulose Dispersion Composite (NDC) rubber masterbatch available for qualification by tyre and rubber companies.
This month we face the latest Brexit deadline. The deadline Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would rather “die in a ditch” than overshoot. However, as we go to press no-one knows if we will Brexit on this date; and if we do, what kind of Brexit it will be. We reported how automotive manufacturers and their suppliers have made their feelings known en masse here, but the broader truth is that the details of the subject remain a great unknown. So, let’s look to the future and how more businesses what to make their future an ecologically sustainable one.
Effective 1 September 2019, Birla Carbon will increase specialty carbon black prices in North America by 9 per cent. All shipments made on or after this date are subject to the price increase.
The International Carbon Black Association (ICBA) recently awarded 12 Birla Carbon plants and a R&D centre certificates of recognition for achieving an above industry average level of safety performance. Eleven plants and the USA-based Marietta R&D Laboratory received the gold award while one plant received the bronze award. The Birla Carbon plants in North and South America, Europe and Asia were amongst 44 carbon black manufacturing facilities around the world to receive this recognition as part of the ICBA’s ‘Safety Recognition Program’.
Birla Carbon has announced a series of expansion plans designed to raise its carbon black capacity in a number of regions.
On 3 July 2018 Birla Carbon, an Aditya Birla Group company, renamed all of its entities worldwide as “Birla Carbon.” As a result former Columbian Carbon and Thai Carbon Black business will now be known as Birla Carbon.
The future of the global carbon black market looks good with the market expected to reach an estimated US$20.2 billion by 2023. This means that during the period between 2018 and 2023 the market will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.6 per cent.
India’s Aditya Birla Group is now Linglong Tire’s carbon black supplier. The Chinese tyre maker reports the signing of agreement with Aditya Birla subsidiary Thai Carbon Black Public Co. Ltd. on 4 April at a ceremony attended by Wang Feng, president of Linglong Tire, Sanjeev Sood, president of Thai Carbon Black Public, and Amit Saini, the Birla Group company’s vice-president of sales and marketing.
Birla Carbon has announced it is increasing carbon black prices in Europe and Africa by €70/MT, net of price monthly variation.
EcoVadis