Cabot to hike carbon black prices in North America 

Boston, Massachusetts – Cabot Corp. is to increase prices on all carbon black products sold by its Reinforcement Materials segment in North America.

Effective 1 July, the $0.06/pound price rise will address “the increasing costs to provide reliability and supply assurance to customers," Cabot said 24 May.

Additionally, Cabot said it is investing $200 million (€163 million) in nitrogen oxide (NOX) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) reduction projects to meet requirements set by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) emissions control initiative.

The company said it operating costs are “increasing substantially” as the systems are put into service to meet industry deadlines in 2021 and 2022. 

Furthermore, Cabot said it was also making “significant investments” in its manufacturing network to ensure equipment reliability “even at high plant utilisations.”

As a result, the US supplier said it would apply an additional feedstock surcharge of $0.05/pound in North America, where allowed under customer contracts.

To take effect 1 July, the surcharge will replace the previously announced feedstock surcharge of $0.03/pound that came into effect last October. 

Cabot said the increased feedstock surcharge is necessary to address the rising premiums for rubber carbon black feedstock relative to fuel oil indices in North America.