After its first 18 months of existence, members of the BlackCycle R&D project met at Michelin’s technology centre in Ladoux, France on 22 November for the consortium’s first workshop. Some 120 international industry leaders, academics, H2020 project coordinators, politicians, and institutional representatives from 20 countries exchanged ideas and discussed the deployment of circular economy initiatives in Europe.
Orion Engineered Carbons S.A. has announced that it is increasing the prices of all its rubber carbon black products sold in the EMEA region effective 1 August 2021 or “as permitted by customer contracts”.
Orion Engineered Carbons S.A. launched its Ecorax Nature family of plant-based carbon black products. According to the company, Ecorax Nature 100, which was launched on 17 June 2021, is “the first highly reinforcing carbon black grade made from renewable feedstocks which can be used in critical tyre tread construction”. The product is currently being tested by customers and will go into high volume manufacturing in the second half of 2022. Orion further reports that Ecorax Nature is the first “renewable carbon black” to be produced for the tyre industry.
Orion Engineered Carbons S.A. has completed a significant upgrade of its emissions controls at its plant in Orange, Texas. As a result of these actions, the site complies with strengthened environmental standards which reduce the site’s emission permits for NOx and SO2 by 2,300 metric tons of air pollutant emissions per year.
On 18 August Orion Engineered Carbons S.A.’s French subsidiary, Orion Engineered Carbons SAS, reached an agreement with the Works Council and labour union at its Ambes, France facility on a comprehensive social plan. Following this agreement, the French subsidiary will “proceed to implement the restructuring and down staffing of that facility with cessation of production at the site expected by the end of 2016”.
On 23 May, US-based Orion Engineered Carbons released three new products that it says create more fuel efficient tyres. The new tyres come in response to consumer demand and legal standards for vehicle fuel economy. As far as the US federal version of these rules are concerned, these grades offer reduction in rolling resistance via narrow particle size distributions and lower sidewall hysteresis; and lower air permeation through the inner liner for better tyre inflation consistency.
On 3 June Orion Engineered Carbons S.A., the carbon black manufacturer, said the management of its company in France (Orion Engineered Carbons SAS) had begun consultations with the Works Council at its Ambes, France facility in order to implement a restructuring and “down staffing” with “a potential cessation of production at the site by the end of 2016”. The French Orion plant employs approximately 40 people.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
Orion Engineered Carbons
Pixnio