HB Chemical recently became a North American distributor of carbon black produced by Jiang Xi Black Cat Carbon Black Ltd, which claims to be China's largest carbon black manufacturer, as well as the fifth largest in the world.

The initial two-year agreement, the first between the firms, began in January. HB already has distributed about 500,000 pounds of Black Cat carbon black to customers across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and it plans to provide all grades of carbon black currently being made by the Chinese supplier.

"The talk among larger users of carbon black is that there could be a shortage from North American producers, possibly in 2014-15, because of tire capacity coming online in the tire market," said Joe Moran, regional sales manager at HB Chemical, located near Akron. "So companies are looking for alternate sources. The bigger users are more concerned right now than the rest of the market."

Moran said domestic producers don't have much ability to expand. "People are going to be looking elsewhere to fill that void," he said.

Black Cat ships its product in bulk to the West coast. From there, the carbon black is distributed either to the HB warehouse in Akron or a facility in West Virginia, where it is distributed by rail directly to a consignment location. The material belongs to HB until the mixer has a need for it.

Source: rubbernews.com