Smithers: carbon black market up 5.4 per cent during last four years

New data produced by Smithers Rapra suggests the carbon black market has grown at an average of 5.4 per cent during the period between 2011 and 2015. As a results demand reached 13 million tons in 2015. To put this figure into context, global demand for carbon black was estimated at 10.7 million tons in 2011 – and this figure is said to represent “a good recovery” from the 15 per cent contraction between 2008 and 2009.

Smithers Rapra’s “The Future of Carbon Black to 2021” report forecasts market growth of 3.74 per cent CAGR for the period. Increased demand in “tyre, non-tyre rubber and specialties markets, coupled with market forces in developed and emerging economies”, but mostly tyre demand, is said to be behind the growth.

Matthew Hartley, the report’s author, said: “The market is being driven primarily by demand growth in tyres, with investments in capacity for passenger vehicle tyres and light truck tyres continuing strongly, and a stable replacement market. The off-road tyre market has seen good growth as a result of construction and mining investments. The swathe of new tyre investments that occurred in 2015, in North America in particular, will continue into 2016 with the promise of continued good growth.”

Smithers Rapra data shows the US is increasingly importing carbon black. Over the past five years imports to the country have decreased from Canada and Mexico and increased from China, Japan, India and Western Europe. There have also been increased imports from Russia, which quadrupled from 2013 to 2014 and doubled in volume from 2014 to 2015 (based on incomplete trade reporting for 2015).