In the end of January, the European Rubber Journal (ERJ) reported that an Indian carbon black manufacturer Phillips Carbon Black Ltd (PCBL) had been “progressing strategically with a project to establish a 150 kiloton per year production plant in southern India, the company has announced.”

According to ERJ, the manufacturer expects to invest a total of €67 million in the plant. The factory is expected to be built near Chennai, India and launched in 2023, producing various grades of rubber black and speciality carbon black.

ERJ wrote that the plant is the latest in a series of expansion projects undertaken by the Indian manufacturer. According to the magazine, last year, PCBL added two speciality carbon production lines at its facility in Palej with a combined capacity of 30 kilotons per annum. In addition, yet in 2019, the company increased production at its brownfield unit in Mundra, Gujarat by 50 kilotons per annum. Moreover, from the summer 2020 onward, the company has been strengthening its positions thanks to its new R&D center in Belgium.

ERJ says that “working in tandem with Sushila Goenka Innovation Centre in Palej, Gujarat, the center will increase focus on process & machine technology, yield-improvement, feedstock-efficiency and customisation of grades.”

It is expected that PCBL will become the largest Indian carbon black manufacturer with 571 kilotons per annum of production capacity, followed by Birla Carbon, with 314 kiloton per annum of carbon black output.

To learn more, please read the full article by ERJ.