Orion Engineered Carbons LLC. is in an in-depth nego- tiation about purchasing the Chinese capital shares in Qing- dao Evonik Chemical Co., Ltd. in accordance with the man- agement regulations of the Chinese state-owned enterprises

Qingdao Evonik Chemical Co., Ltd. was jointly estab- lished by Evonik Industries AG, DEG and Jiaozhou Financ- ing & Investment Center in 1994, and the shareholding ratio is 52%:15%:33% respectively. In June 2011, Evonik Indus- tries AG separated the carbon black business and transferred it to Orion Engineered Carbons LLC. Because the capital composition of Qingdao Evonik is very complex, it is tem- porarily retained in Evonik Industries. Recently, Orion began to negotiate with the Chinese party of Qingdao Evonik about transferring 33% shares held by the Chinese partner after purchasing the 67% shares held by the German party.

At present, the annual carbon black production capac- ity of Qingdao Evonik is about 75,000 tons, and there are 3 production lines specializing in the production of high- end carbon black products. Since this plant is near Qingdao Port, it has excellent logistics base to participate in the fu- ture market competition by virtue of the perfect transporta- tion infrastructure.