Cabot tracks impact of EU sanctions on Russian carbon black exports

Boston, Massachusetts – Cabot Corp. foresees upcoming EU sanctions on Russian carbon black exports as having limited impact on its business worldwide, including in China.

“Russian exports into Europe, right now, are down by about 50%, from where they were pre-Ukraine invasion” according to president and CEO Sean Keohane.

Furthermore, with sanctions on Russian carbon black effective from the end of June 2024, these exports will “arguably go to zero”, Keohane added during a 5 Aug earnings call.

Alternative destinations include Turkey – which Keohane described as a "pretty good-sized tire production base" without domestic carbon-black supply – and the Middle East

Russian carbon black, he said, is also reaching China, though this trade is not having “any material impact" on Cabot’s competitive position in that country.

In China, Keohane commented, “the market has its own competitive-intensity and the Russian [supply] isn't really changing that.

“A few hundred thousand tonnes flowing into a market somewhere in the order of probably 7 million or 8 million tonnes is not really changing the dynamic there.”