AV Birla's Egypt facility to be top carbon black unit

Sabarinath M

In yet another instance of an Indian company achieving global importance, the Aditya Birla group is set to become the world’s largest producer of carbon black from a single location, overtaking US major Cabot. Alexandria Carbonblack, the group’s carbon black company in Egypt, has completed an expansion project to raise its carbon black capacity to 160,000 tonnes per annum (tpa), making it the largest single-location unit. Cabot’s facility in Brazil, previously the world’s largest single-location plant, has a capacity which is slightly lower than the Alexandria unit.

Cabot, with a capacity of 1.8m tpa, is the largest carbon black company in the world.

The Aditya Birla group’s total carbon black capacity, scattered over units in India, Thailand and Egypt and China, is now close to 6 lakh tpa.

The group, which took over a unit in China recently, is also looking for acquisition opportunities to expand the capacity to 1m tpa. According to industry sources, the group has short-listed some plants in Europe. It will become the fourth-largest carbon black player in the world if it manages to raise its capacity to 1m tpa.

German major Degussa, with a capacity of 1.4m tpa, and Columbian Chemicals, with a capacity of 1.1 tpa are in second and third position respectively. Birla Carbon Black comes fifth, right after Continental Carbon Black. China Synthetic Rubber, Sid Richardson, and Tokai Carbon are the other major players.

Situated at Amreya near Alexandria in Egypt, Alexandria Carbon Black was set up in 1994. The company went onstream with technological participation from Continental. In India, carbon black is mainly produced at the Indian Rayon plants at Renukoot in Uttar Pradesh and Gummidipoondi near Chennai.

The group has restructured the carbon black business based on geographical demarcations. Indian Rayon’s carbon black unit will cater to the Sri Lanka and Bangladesh markets. Thai Carbon Black will focus on the Asian markets. Alexandria Carbon Black will handle the US and East European markets.

The group has unified its product branding. All companies now market their products under the common brand name of Birla Carbon. The demand for carbon black, used to manufacture tyres, accessories and consumer products, has been growing due to rising sales of automobiles.