ZC Rubber launches new special carbon black production

China's ZC Rubber plans to open a new technical carbon plant in Tianjin, China by the end of the year as part of a project launched after the purchase of Tianjin United Tire & Rubber International Co. (TUTRIC), a manufacturer of off-the-road tires, two years ago.

The 2 billion yuan ($280 million) project includes the expansion of TUTRIC's tire production, while the new technical carbon plant will have a capacity of 60,000 tons of solid and 25,000 tons of soft carbon black per year.

ZC Rubber acquired TUTRIC in March 2022 for $200 million, and in July of that year, it was announced that new radial tire production lines for off-the-road tires with a capacity of 111,400 tons per year would be launched as part of the modernization. At the same time, it was planned to reduce the production of diagonal tires by 16,500 tons per year.

The second stage involves increasing the production of radial tires by another 114,800 tons per year, after which 'one of the largest OTR tire manufacturers in Asia' will be created with a total capacity of 267,800 tons of products per year.

ZC Rubber recently announced that it will build a new plant in Jiangsu with a capacity of 25 million passenger tires, and this enterprise will also have a technical carbon production line.

Other tire companies also sometimes have their own carbon black production, which is one of the key types of raw materials in tire manufacturing, and this list includes, for example, Bridgestone, BKT, etc.