Raw Materials
South Korean waste treatment and raw material recycling company LC Carbon announced on Tuesday that it had gained US$15 million of Series A investment, which it will use to build a pyrolysis, crushing, and recovered carbon black (rCB) facility within the country.
Bridgestone Corporation owns almost 24,000 hectares of natural rubber plantations in Indonesia and has approved plans to increase yields there to ensure a sustainable supply of natural rubber for its tyre production. The company will invest US$26.7 million by 2030. The aim of these investments is to enhance the plantations’ productivity, with Bridgestone setting a goal of doubling harvest volumes (compared with 2022 projections) in a given area in 2035.
Today is a big day for the Bridgestone team tasked with developing tyres containing natural rubber derived from the guayule desert shrub. An all-new Firestone race tyre with a sidewall made with this rubber makes its competition debut at this weekend’s IndyCar Series racing in Nashville, USA.
On 20 July 2022, the launch ceremony of the Advanced Polymer and Metal Materials Industrial Park in Qingdao City, Shandong Province was held. Tyrepress noted that among the seven projects that started construction, the Functional New Material Industrial Park belonging to the National Engineering Research Center for Rubber and Tire (NECRAT) was included.
At its recent Annual General Meeting, the first held since the company’s IPO in Oslo and its secondary listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Pyrum Innovations AG shared details of the special purpose vehicles (SPV) that it intends to establish with joint venture partners. It has already announced one of these, a 20,000-tonne pyrolysis plant in Germany, but a further six SPV projects are on the cards – including a facility in the UK.
Anyone wanting to learn more about carbon black and its many applications can now do so at the new Birla Carbon virtual showroom. Claimed as an industry first, the site offers a virtual reality experience that takes viewers through the intricate uses of each part of a car and employs an immersive experience to showcase how carbon black can make a difference to the solutions it is part of. Birla Carbon aims for the virtual showroom to be a “one-stop shop experience for the entire value chain of carbon black solutions.”
Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) reports progress in its joint work with professors from three universities to improve natural rubber yields and create new strains of rubber that will enhance tyre performance.
With the purchase of the 49 per cent shareholding that Barito Pacific Group had in Royal Lestari Utama (RLU), the joint venture pilot project to develop sustainable rubber tree plantations in Indonesia becomes a 100 per cent Michelin-owned affair. Moving forwards, Michelin views RLU as a “significant long-term opportunity to actively contribute to making the natural rubber sector more sustainable.”
On 14 June 2022 Hou Yugang, chairman of Zaozhuang Mining Group, went to Zhongxing Huitong Tire for research purposes. During his public speech, Hou Yugang affirmed that Zaozhuang Mining Group’s takeover of OTR tyre specialist Huitong had transitioned smoothly following the transfer of equity.
Klarius reports that it has been using its “extensive UK stock of exhaust systems, components and accessories to limit price rises to the aftermarket” up till now. However, the continuing rises in global energy costs are now being compounded by direct sanctions on trade with Russia, which is also pushing up raw materials costs for manufacturing industry.
In addition to gaining ISO 9001 certification, Pyrum Innovations has started test operation of a new pelletiser at its plant site in Dillingen, Germany. The pelletiser enables the recovered carbon black (rCB) obtained via the pyrolysis process to be bonded into pellets, which increases their transportability and facilitates the further processing of the raw material.
Birla Carbon has been awarded a Platinum level rating by EcoVadis for sustainability. This recognition confirms Birla Carbon’s position as an industry leader in advanced sustainability practices and reporting and places it in the top 1 per cent of companies rated by EcoVadis. The rating was provided after reviewing Birla Carbon’s sustainability practices in its recently published ninth sustainability report, Driving Circularity.
Carlton Forest reports that it has begun a cold testing phase at what it refers to as “the UK’s first continuous pyrolysis plant” located at the company’s Worksop site. That announcement, which was published on 13 May 2022, will be followed by “full operation launch” later in May.
Announcing its financial results for the first quarter of 2022, tyre maker and automotive technology firm Continental states that it “performed well” during the period despite “an increasingly turbulent market environment.” It describes its Q1 2022 tyre business as “strong.”
Indian tyre maker MRF Limited has reported a standalone income of Rs 193.04 billion (£2.03 billion) for the financial year ending 31 March 2022, a 19.7 per cent increase on the previous year’s result. Exports were slightly up, being valued at Rs 17.79 billion (£186.80 million), compared with Rs 13.33 billion for the prior financial year. Standalone net profit, however, dropped 48.2 per cent year-on-year to Rs 6.47 billion (£67.94 million).
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Screenshot from local media coverage
Huitong
Klarius
Carlton Forest