Carbon black is invented by the Chinese. 3000 years ago, our ancestors grasped the technology of making ink by burning ashes. Even so, in old China, only Taiwan Jinshui once built the gas channel black factory and later Fushun and Anshan built the lamp black factory. When the new China was founded in 1949, China could only produce a small amount of lamp black, and the national output of carbon black was only 252 tons.

I. 65-year Development History of Carbon Black Industry of New China

The carbon black industry of new China dated from 1950 when channel black test unit was established in Longchang, Sichuan, and it has been 65 years until now. Due to overseas blockade, new China began to plan its modern carbon black industry from the very beginning, developed from nothing to gradually establish modern carbon black industry system and developed into a world carbon black power. Review 65-year development history of China carbon black industry from the perspective of production technology, it generally experiences the following stages:

(1) Early 1950s: China’s carbon black industry grew from scratch to successfully develop carbon black production technologies with natural gas as main raw material such as channel black, roller black, gas-mixed carbon black, furnace black, etc. one after another, and began industrial production.

(2) From late 1950s to 1970s: While producing carbon black varieties with natural gas as main raw material, the oil furnace black production technology was developed and gradually improved and acetylene black was developed and put into production.

(3) From late 1970s to 1980s: new process reactor with combustion and splitting separated was successfully developed and quickly promoted to increase the variety of China carbon black, improve the quality, lower the fuel consumption and realize the first technological leap. Meanwhile, the waste heat and tail gas of carbon black production process were started to be utilized.

(4) From late 1980s to the end of the 20th century: ten-thousand-tonnage carbon black production unit was introduced from overseas, and digestion, absorption and innovation were carried out on this basis to form domestic ten-thousand-tonnage new process carbon black production technology and start to realize the second technological leap of China carbon black industry.

(5) Since the 21st century, on the basis of domestic ten-thousand-tonnage new process carbon black pro- duction technology, with equipment upsizing, energy conservation and environmental protection as main target, domestic enterprises developed a series of new technologies and new equipment to make China carbon black industry develop to a new level and the production scale reach a new stage of world No. 1 and promote the development of China rubber industry. 

II. Progress of China Carbon Black Industry in Recent 10 Years

(I) Output and capacity of carbon black have a rapid growth

China’s output of carbon black increased from 1,612,000 tons in 2005 to 5,100,000 tons in 2014 (3.2 times of that of 2005), with an annual average growth of 11%. From 2006 to 2014, China’s output of carbon black ranked first in the world for 9 consecutive years, and the proportion of capacity increased from 18% in 2005 to 42% in 2014, thus China develops into a world carbon black production power. See Fig. 1 for China’s output of carbon black from 2005 to 2014 and see Fig. 2 for distribution of carbon black output of all regions of the world in 2014. 

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Fig.1: China’s Output of Carbon Black from 2005 to 2014 

Fig. 2: Distribution of Carbon Black Output of All Regions of the World in 2014 

(II) Main motivating factors for development of carbon black industry

(1) Brisk domestic demand stimulates the development

The reform and opening up promotes the rapid development of China’s transportation industry, automobile industry and tire industry. In 2005, China’s output of automobile and tire as well as the consumption of rubber were respectively only 5,860,000 vehicles, 250 million units and 4 million tons, which rose up to 23.72 million vehicles, 562 million units and 8.70 million tons in 2014. The rapid development of automobile industry and tire industry brings about brisk demand for carbon black. See Table 1 for details of domestic automobile output, tire output, rubber consumption and apparent consumption of carbon black from 2005 to 2014.

Table 1: China’s Automobile Output, Tire Output, Rubber Consumption and Apparent Consumption of Carbon Black from 2005 to 2014 

(2) Through exploitation and conservation, independently satisfy the demand for raw oil

The development of China carbon black industry mainly depends on rich coal tar resources and independent development of new technologies and new equipment producing high-quality carbon black with coal tar-series oils as raw material. In recent three years, the proportion of coal tar-series oils in the raw oil for producing carbon black has exceeded 90%. From 2005 to 2014, China’s output of coke and coal tar respectively had an average annual growth of 7.8% and 9.3%, which basically satisfied the demand of carbon black industry for raw oil for carbon black. The carbon black enterprises adopt natural gas, coke oven gas or coal bed gas to replace the raw oil as fuel of reactor, thus reducing the usage of raw oil and increasing the use ratio of raw oil. See Table 2 for supply and demand of raw oil for carbon black from 2005 to 2014.

Table 2: China’s Carbon Black Output, Raw Oil Usage, Coke Output and Coal Tar Output from 2005 to 2014   Ten Thousand Tons

Note: the consumption of raw oil for carbon black excludes the consumption converted from gas fuel; the coal tar output is calculated according to the recycled amount of machine coke output.

In energy conservation and consumption reduction, China’s carbon black enterprises actively enlarge the capacity of unit equipment, promote the application of high temperature air pre-heater, improve process technology and equipment and carry out research on tail gas utilization to lower the consumption of raw oil and sharply reduce the comprehensive energy consumption. The average consumption of raw oil of unit carbon black product of main carbon black enterprises in China fell from 1.84 tons in 2005 to 1.60 tons in 2014, with a decrease of 0.24 tons during 10 years. If calculated according to the output of carbon black in 2014 of 5.10 million tons, 1.22 million tons of raw oil can be saved for the very year, and 760,000 tons of carbon black can be produced. Through exploitation and conservation, China’s carbon black industry independently satisfies the demand for raw oil. See Fig. 3 for average consumption of raw oil of unit carbon black product in China from 2005 to 2014.

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Fig. 3: Average Consumption of Raw Oil of Unit Carbon Black Product in China from 2005 to 2014 

(3) Good support of development environment Benefiting from the macro-environment of the reform and opening up, China’s carbon black industry realizes rapid development.

The opening up and the reform of investment system enable a large amount of capital to flow into the industry, which forms the situation of tripartite confrontation of state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and overseas-funded enterprises in China’s carbon black industry, accelerates the development of China’s carbon black industry and improves the quality of carbon black product. The development of private enterprises is the most prominent, among China’s capacity of carbon black in 2014, the capacity of private enterprises accounts for 61.8%, that of state-owned and state holding enterprises accounts for 23.2% and that of overseas-funded enterprises and joint venture enterprises accounts for 15.0%. See Fig. 4 for distribution of economic nature of China’s capacity of carbon black.

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Fig. 4: Distribution of Economic Nature of China’s Capacity of Carbon Black in 2014 

The reform of capital market creates the opportunity for diversified financing of carbon black enterprises. At present, there are 4 listed companies (including main board and new three board) and several listed companies not with carbon black as main business in China’s carbon black industry. Only four companies with carbon black as main business have a stock market financing of over 1.4 Billion Yuan. With the support of stock market capital, the listed companies develop quickly.

The carbon black industry has high energy consumption. To support energy conservation and emission reduction and comprehensive utilization of resources, the nation lists power generation with carbon black tail gas into the catalog of comprehensive utilization of resources and relevant enterprises can enjoy the pref- erential policy. To support the sustainable development of the industry, the nation establishes Carbon Black Material Engineering Technology Research Center and approves to formulate the national standard of Technical Condition on Energy Consumption of Unit Product of Carbon Black, which is the first standard on industry product energy consumption in rubber industry. The industry organizations such as China Rubber Industry Association (hereinafter referred to as CRIA), Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China Rubber Specialized Committee Carbon Black Branch, National Rubber Industry Information Center Carbon Black Sub-center, etc. undertake the functions of industry service, coordination and exchange during the functional transformation of the government, make a large amount of productive work in brand building, quality credit granting, industry self discipline, information exchange, technical progress and striving for national energy conservation and emission reduction policy, export rebate and support of technological innovation, responding to the international trade frictions, etc., and strive for good internal and external development envi- ronment for the enterprises.

(4) Concentration and scalization progress quickly The concentration of carbon black industry raises quickly and the scalization progresses rapidly, the pattern of large quantity and small production scale of the enterprises is changing. In 2005, according to the statistics of CRIA Carbon Black Branch, the average annual carbon black capacity of member carbon black en- terprises was 35,000 tons, which increased to 157,000 tons in 2014. With the policy of cultivating large enterprises in the industry, the competition between 

enterprises is mainly the competition of concentration and the main fields of competition are carbon black for rubber market and coal tar resource market. During the “11th Five-Year” and “12th Five-Year”, the competition result began to take shape. According to the statistics of CRIA Carbon Black Branch, in 2014, there were 7 enterprises with the capacity of carbon black of more than 200,000 tons, accounting for 46% of the total carbon black capacity of China; and there were 22 enterprises with the capacity of more than 100,000 tons, accounting for 75% of the total carbon black capacity of China. Three carbon black enterprises in China ranked world top 15 in carbon black capacity, in which Jiangxi BLACKCAT Carbon Black Inc., Ltd. ranked 4th, with the output reaching 1.03 million tons; Longxing Chemical Stock Co., Ltd. ranked 10th; and Suzhou Baohua Carbon Black Co., Ltd. ranked 13th. At present, large-scale carbon black enterprises belonging to the first echelon dominate in the carbon black for rubber (tire) market, with sound development momentum. See Fig. 5 for distribution of capacity scale of carbon black enterprises in China in 2014.

Fig.5: Distribution of Capacity Scale of Carbon Black Enterprises in China in 2014 

(5) Openness is further enhanced
An important symbol for opening up of carbon black industry is growth in product export. In 2007, China’s export volume of carbon black reached 147,000 tons, changing from years of import and ex- port deficit to surplus; in 2014, China’s export volume of carbon black reached 841,000 tons, with a surplus of 739,000 tons, which indicated that the international competitiveness of China’s carbon black products was strengthening. Increase in export volume of carbon black products becomes an important reason for growth in output of carbon black in recent years. According to the statistics, in 2014, the product export rate of China’s carbon black enterprises was 16.5%, plus the export rate of carbon black driven by export of tire product of 19.27% (calculated with domestic apparent consumption of carbon black of 4.361 million tons as the base and according to the consumption of carbon black for tire of 70% and the tire export rate of 32.2%), the export proportion of China’s carbon black in 2014 reached 35.77%. See Fig. 6 for China’s import and ex- port volume of carbon black from 2005 to 2014.

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Fig. 6: China’s Import and Export Volume of Carbon Black from 2005 to 2014 

Another important symbol for opening up of China’s carbon black industry is holding of Carbon Black China (CBC). Five international meetings were successfully held from 2006 to 2014. The meeting section expanded from technical discussion to fields such as economic operation, supply and demand of raw materials, new materials, standard testing, environmental protection and hygiene, etc., and the meeting theme fitted with the current situation and the hot issues of the industry to provide an information platform for exchange between China’s carbon black industry and world carbon black industry. At present, CBC has become one of three largest meetings in world carbon black industry.

(6) Technical development, energy conservation and environmental protection and comprehensive utilization have remarkable achievements

The level of China’s carbon black production technology improves prominently. From 2005 to 2014, the carbon black device independently designed by China aimed at the characteristics of mainly using coal tar to find a new way in refined processing of raw oil and improvement of furnace profile and process, with the annual capacity of single furnace increasing from 20,000 tons to 40,000~60,000 tons and the combustion temperature rising to 2000°C~ 2100°C , and successfully utilized the coke oven gas and coal bed gas as the fuel of reactor, with the temperature of air pre-heater increasing from 650°C to 800°C~ 950°C . Due to the promotion and application of energy-saving technology and improvement of equipment, the consumption of raw oil and comprehensive energy consumption of unit carbon black product fall year by year.

On the basis of realization of equipment upsizing, carbon black industry generally adopts technologies such as wet pelletizing, automatic packaging, sack packaging, tank wagon transportation, etc. Efficient bag filter and high-quality glass fiber filter are adopted to reduce the concentration of carbon black dust in the tail gas to below 18mg·m3. Many carbon black enterprises build sewage treatment facility for carbon black production to recycle the purified water and realize zero emission of sewage from carbon black production. At present, a batch of carbon black enterprises with high management level have become clean and civilized production and environmentally-friendly enterprises, with good environmental greening, high field management level, tidy workshop and clean package. In 2008, the output of wet pelletizing carbon black accounted for 90% in China’s total output of carbon black, which reached over 97% in 2014. The change in proportion reflects the process of China’s carbon black industry upsizing and modernizing the equipment and eliminating the outdated capacity.

Comprehensive utilization and energy conservation and environmental protection become new benefit growth points. Carbon black enterprises fully utilize the waste heat and tail gas from carbon black production to reduce the comprehensive energy consumption and eliminate the tail gas pollution, and many carbon black enterprises set up waste gas desulfurization device. From 2005 to 2014, the capacity of domestic carbon black enterprises to utilize tail gas to generate power grew year by year and reached 358,000 KW in 2010; carbon black enterprises utilizing tail gas to generate power account for about 80% of carbon black enterprises in China; the total treatment amount of tail gas of the factories equipped with tail gas power generation, tail gas furnace and delivering gas for other purposes accounts for about 65% of the total emission calculated according to the capacity of the factories. According to incomplete statistics, the annual amount of energy saving can be over 1.40 million tons of standard coal, which can indicate that the tail gas of China’s carbon black industry has been basically controlled and added considerable power resources for the nation. At present, it is necessary for newly-built carbon black production line to be equipped with tail gas power generation and tail gas furnace. Utilizing tail gas to generate power and provide heat can not only satis- fies self use, but also can be supplied to the external, thus providing a new economic growth point for the enterprises.

With the development of special equipment and auxiliary equipment and the improvement of the product quality, plus the establishment of engineering companies able to undertake design, construction and turnkey projects, newly-built carbon black production equipment can not only realize localization, but also have obviously reduced construction investment and shortened construction cycle. The development of special equipment and materials for carbon black production and rapid development of production have been close to or partially exceeded overseas advanced level, 

in which some technologies and equipment have been exported overseas.

(7) Technology and management are paid equal attention to and production quality and brand building reach a new level. The brand awareness of carbon black enterprises constantly enhances. To make the products conform to the national standard and reach the requirements of the users, especially the radial tire producers, carbon black enterprises take measures in technology and management to strive to improve the product quality. At present, a majority of enterprises have established a relatively perfect quality system and passed ISO 9000 certification. 16 enterprises passed the pre-registration and registration of the EU REACH Regulation. On the initiative of CRIA, the carbon black enterprises actively participate in quality credit granting and brand making activities. So far, 23 enterprises have obtained the quality credit granting of CRIA and the brands of 8 enterprises have been rated as “Recommended Brand of CRIA”. In addition, the trademark “Longxing LX” of Longxing Chemical Stock Co., Ltd. obtains the title of “China Well-known Trademark”.

In variety and quality, the variety of new process carbon black for radial tire is prioritized, hard and soft carbon black with quality conforming to the national standard and stable performance are produced, and the pelletizing quality and packaging quality of the products reach the requirements of the users. To satisfy the demand for low-rolling resistance tires, CCBI and Jiangxi BLACKCAT Carbon Black Inc., Ltd. respectively developed DZ-series low hysteresis carbon black and HM1107 carbon black to be used for radial tires and rubber products requiring low heat build-up. According to the assessment index of GB 3778-2003 Carbon Black for Rubber, the yield of carbon black for rubber in general survey of the National Food Quality Supervision and Inspection Center from 2009 to 2014 reached over 90%, which indicated the quality of the products in carbon black industry maintained stable. See Fig. 7 for yield of carbon black for rubber from 2005 to 2014 (not surveyed in 2008). 

Fig. 7: Yield of Carbon Black for Rubber According to General Survey from 2005 to 2014