Black Cat investing €85m in reinforced rubber facility

Shenzhen, China - Chinese carbon black major Jiangxi Black Cat Carbon Black Co. is investing Yuan688 million (€86 million) to scale up a new technology to produce rubber composite masterbatches.

Black Cat has formed subsidiary Liaoning Heimao Composite New Material Technology in Chaoyang, Liaoning, to advance the project, said its 27 June filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

The plant will have a capacity to produce 160 kilotonnes per annum (ktpa) of “carbon material/rubber composite masterbatch”.

The material will be manufactured by combining natural rubber with the company's carbon black using a wet-mixing technology.

The project is based on a joint research completed between Black Cat and a research team from a “well-known local university” in 2022.

As part of the R&D project, the developers built and brought into operation a 4ktpa pilot production line in Qingdao last October, noted the Black Cat filing.

The wet-mixing technology, it stated, significantly improves dispersion of carbon black in rubber and improves overall performance of the masterbatch.

Furthermore, the process is also said to reduce hysteresis loss and rolling resistance, and enhance abrasion resistance of the masterbatch.

Black Cat expects the composite masterbatch products to be used particularly in truck & bus tires and 'speciality' tires.