Orion S.A. (Orion) operates as a global manufacturer of carbon black products. The company is also one of the largest global producers of specialty and rubber carbon black.
The company operates 14 wholly owned production facilities, excluding the under-construction facility at La Porte, Texas, in Europe, North and South America, South Africa, and Asia; and one jointly-owned production facility at Dortmund, Germany.
The company is a premium supplier of carbon black generating long-term benefits...
Orion S.A. (Orion) operates as a global manufacturer of carbon black products. The company is also one of the largest global producers of specialty and rubber carbon black.
The company operates 14 wholly owned production facilities, excluding the under-construction facility at La Porte, Texas, in Europe, North and South America, South Africa, and Asia; and one jointly-owned production facility at Dortmund, Germany.
The company is a premium supplier of carbon black generating long-term benefits for stakeholders while remaining committed to responsible business practices with a focus on team culture, reliability, quality and sustainability.
Segments
The company’s business is organized into two reportable segments: Specialty Carbon Black and Rubber Carbon Black.
Specialty Carbon Black segment
The company manufactures Specialty Carbon Black for a broad range of specialized applications such as polymers, batteries, printing and coatings. The various production processes result in a wide range of different Specialty Carbon Black grades with respect to their primary particle size, structure, surface area and surface chemistry. These parameters affect jetness, tinting strength, undertone, dispersibility, electrical conductivity and other characteristics. Carbon black is an additive that enhances the physical, electrical and optical properties of the company’s customer’s end products.
The company has several post-treated Specialty Carbon Black grades for coatings and printing applications, as well as several high purity carbon black grades for the fiber industry and conductive carbon black grades for batteries, polymers and coatings. The company’s specialty grades of carbon black are used to impart color, provide rheology control, enhance conductivity and static charge control, provide UV protection, enhance mechanical properties and provide formulation flexibility through surface treatment. These specialty carbon products are used in a wide variety of applications, such as coatings, inks, plastics, adhesives, toners and batteries.
Products
Carbon Black for Coatings: The company offers a broad range of Specialty Carbon Black products for coatings, which includes products used for pigmentation and protection (e.g., automotive base coats and architectural coatings), for conductivity and for tinting, as well as for paints and for light tinting in transparent coatings (e.g., metallic effects and wood glazing). The diversity of the company’s manufacturing processes allows for the creation of a wide range of Specialty Carbon Black grades with different structures and chemical properties, thereby allowing its products to impart unique characteristics to its customers’ products.
Carbon Black for Polymers: The company offers Specialty Carbon Black for polymers in a diverse range of end markets, including pipe (e.g., gas, oil, municipal water, sewage), construction, energy distribution (e.g., power cables), automotive, agriculture and consumer packaging. Certain products within this portfolio provide UV protection against polymer degradation for material such as pipe used for potable water, injection molding, agriculture films and cables. Other products include standard- to high-performance grades designed and modified to provide electrical conductivity, antistatic and reinforcing properties to many different polymer applications, including high-voltage cables, film and high-pressure pipes.
Carbon Black for Printing: The company offers Specialty Carbon Black for printing inks used in different printing systems and applications. The company applies different process technologies to offer highly specialized products meeting specific requirements, including compliance with food-contact regulations and specially formulated products that require unique attributes such as color undertone, optical density and gloss.
Carbon Black for Batteries: The company offers conductive additives for lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, energy storage and consumer applications. They can be used both in the cathode and anode. The company also offers conductive additives for lead-acid batteries, supercapacitors and dry cell batteries. The company’s products, which are manufactured in different production processes, are differentiated by high purity, high conductivity, low moisture and easy dispersion, enhancing the performance, lifetime and safety of batteries.
Rubber Carbon Black segment
The company’s Rubber Carbon Black products are used in tires and mechanical rubber goods (‘MRG’). Rubber Carbon Black are used to enhance the physical properties of the systems and applications in which they are incorporated. Rubber Carbon Black have traditionally been used in the tire industry as a rubber reinforcing agent to increase tread durability and are also used as a performance additive to reduce rolling resistance and improve traction. In MRG, such as hoses, belts, extruded profiles and molded goods, Rubber Carbon Black is used to improve the physical performance of the product, including the product’s physical strength, fluid resistance, conductivity and resistivity.
Products
Carbon Black for Tires: The company offers a broad range of carbon black products for tires, which includes high-reinforcing grades and semi-reinforcing grades. Fine particle reinforcing grade carbon black is used mostly in the tread of tires. Other reinforcing grade carbon black is also used in different components of the tire carcass. In addition to standardized grades, the company produces advanced grades tailored to meet specific customer performance requirements, such as ECORAX grades designed to lower rolling resistance and high-performance grades for truck tires and high- and ultra-high-performance passenger car tires.
Carbon Black for Mechanical Rubber Goods: The company produces a wide range of carbon black products for a variety of MRG end-uses, including automotive production, construction, as well as certain food, consumer and medical applications. These grades have an exceptionally high purity and high consistency and satisfy special requirements needed for smooth surfaces and electrical resistance. These grades also disperse well in rubber compounds used in parts like window seals, automotive hoses, transmission belts, damping elements and electrically conductive and antistatic rubber goods.
Drivers of Demand
Specialty Carbon Black has a wide variety of end-uses and demand is largely driven by the growth and development of the coatings, polymers, printing and battery industries. Demand for Specialty Carbon Black in the coatings and polymers industries is mainly influenced by the levels of industrialization, automobile original equipment manufacturer (‘OEM’) demand, infrastructure development, consumer spending and construction activity. Demand for Specialty Carbon Black in the printing industry is mainly influenced by developments in print media and packaging materials. Demand for Specialty Carbon Black in the batteries industry is driven by electric vehicle penetration, growth of consumer and industrial batteries business and energy storage systems use.
Demand for Rubber Carbon Black is largely driven by the growth and development of the automotive tire, commercial tire and MRG industries. Demand for Rubber Carbon Black in tires is mainly influenced by the number of replacement and original equipment tires produced, which in turn is driven by (i) the number of miles driven and truck traffic, (ii) vehicle trends, including the number of vehicles produced and operated, (iii) demand for larger vehicles, such as trucks and buses, (iv) demand for high-performance tires, (v) consumer and industrial spending on replacement tires and on new vehicles, and (vi) changes in regulatory requirements. Demand for Rubber Carbon Black in MRG is mainly influenced by vehicle production and design trends, construction activity and general industrial production.
Customer Contracts
The company sells carbon black under the following two main categories of contracts based on price adjustment mechanisms:
Contracts with feedstock adjustments (indexed contracts): This category includes contracts with monthly or, in some cases, quarterly automatic feedstock and/or energy cost adjustments, which cover approximately 65% of the company’s global volume.
Non-indexed contracts: This category includes short-term contracts (usually shorter than three months) where sales prices of the company’s carbon black products are not linked to carbon black oil market prices.
Seasonality
The company’s results of operations are generally weaker in the last three months of a calendar year (year ended December 2024).
Environmental, Health and Safety Matters
The company’s integrated global management system with established standards and processes is based on the principles of the Responsible Care 14001 for Environmental, Health, Safety and Security Management System, International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) 9001 Quality Management System, ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems and ISO 45001 Safety Management Systems. All of the company’s operating sites are third-party certified to ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 standards.
In the European Union (‘EU’), the company is subject to the EU Directive No. 2010/75/EU amended by 2024/1785 Directive on industrial emissions (‘IED Directive’), which regulates pollution from industrial activities and includes rules aiming to reduce emissions into air, water and land and to prevent the generation of waste.
In the U.S., the company is subject to emissions limitations on prevention of significant deterioration (‘PSD’) permits issued under the federal Clean Air Act (‘CAA’), as well as analogous state and local laws, which regulate the emission of air pollutants from the company’s facilities and impose significant monitoring, record keeping and reporting requirements. In addition, these laws and regulations require the company to obtain pre-approval for the construction or modification of facilities expected to produce or significantly increase air emissions and to obtain and comply with air permits that include stringent conditions on air emissions and operations.
Pursuant to the CAA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (‘EPA’) has developed industry-specific National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (‘NESHAPs’) for stationary sources classified as ‘major’ on the basis of their hazardous air pollutant emissions. Under these, the company is required to comply with Maximum Achievable Control Technology (‘MACT’) standards. The company’s U.S. facilities are subject to MACT standards applicable to carbon black facilities, as well as MACT standards applicable to industrial boilers.
In the United States, the company’s facilities are subject to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (‘CERCLA’), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (‘RCRA’) and similar state laws.
In California, the company is subject to the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, which imposes labeling and record keeping requirements.
The company is a member of the International Carbon Black Association (the ‘ICBA’).
The company is also a member of the European consortium for carbon black (‘CB4REACH Consortium’) which has pre-registered and registered carbon black with ECHA as required by the REACH Regulation.
In addition, the company is a member of the European Chemical Industry Council (‘CEFIC’), a European trade association for the EU chemical industry.
History
The company was founded in 1862. It was incorporated in 2011. The company was formerly known as Kinove Luxembourg Holdings 2 S.à r.l. and changed its name to Orion Engineered Carbons S.A. in 2014 and then to Orion S.A. in 2023.
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