China’s Jinneng to build carbon black facilities

Qingdao, China – Coal chemical firm Jingneng Science and Technology is planning to set up a new site in Qingdao, Shandong. The latest round of environmental impact assessment started in July.

Phase one of the project has earmarked 10.8 billion yuan (€1.4 billion) for 480ktpa carbon black, 900ktpa propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and 900ktpa high performance polypropylene facilities, slated to come on stream by 2020.

Phase two’s planned capacity includes 900ktpa PDH, 260kpta acrylonitrile and 100ktpa methylmethacrylate (MMA) with €1.2 billion investment. Construction is expected to take two years.

The 1.5-million-square-metre new site is adjacent to the smart factory of Doublestar, one of Jinneng’s major clients for carbon black. The company also supplies to Sentury, Sailun and Bridgestone.

Located in nearby Dezhou, Jinneng currently has 300ktpa carbon black capacity and 60ktpa white carbon black capacity. Last year the Shanghai-listed company reported a 57% jump in revenue to €840 million, 22% of which was from these two segments.

China’s carbon black prices has more than doubled since 2016, now at around €1,000 per tonne. Last year Jinneng had 28% gross margin for its carbon black business, up from 21% in 2016.