Vanadium manufacturer becomes raw material supplier for the tire industry
Ferro-Alloy Resources, a vanadium producer developing the large Balasauskandyk vanadium deposit in southern Kazakhstan, has announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Chinese tire company Qingdao Master Tyre regarding annual supplies of up to 360,000 tons of carbon black substitute (CBS) material, which will be produced from high-carbon low-vanadium waste rock.
Master Tyre plans to use CBS in tire production, and the company is also a distributor of carbon black, working with leading Chinese tire manufacturers. The new material will be tested with customers and the Qingdao University of Science and Technology. The trials will assess the possibility of using CBS as a substitute for silica, which is also contained in the material. At the end of last year, Master Tyre presented a 10-year strategy, according to which the development of CBS as a raw material will be one of the priority projects for the next three years.
"Master Tyre's innovative approach to tire production and scientific research will allow us to maximize the environmental and economic benefits of our new product, as well as gain the necessary technical knowledge about its application in rubber compound production," said Nick Bridgen, CEO of Ferro-Alloy Resources, adding that the profits from the sale of the new material will further improve the already high financial performance of the project in Kazakhstan.
Carbon black is widely used globally as a reinforcing filler for tire and RTI rubber compounds, and is usually produced through the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons, which is a costly process associated with significant environmental pollution, with CO2 emissions of up to 2-3 tons per ton of product. At the same time, the ore at the Balasauskandyk deposit contains a high carbon content in a form similar to industrially produced carbon black, and Ferro-Alloy Resources has previously successfully produced CBS on a test basis from concentrated vanadium production waste. It is reported that rubber compound specialists have confirmed the high technical characteristics of the new material and its suitability for production, for example, of sidewalls for passenger car tires, after which a marketing report with pricing recommendations was prepared.
Founded in 2016, Master Tyres is based in Qingdao (Shandong, China) and owns a plant for the production of passenger, truck, and OTR tires in Weifang, with a portfolio that includes the Master, Baoling, and Xfinity brands.