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MOSCOW (MRC) -- US carbon black
producer Cabot (Boston, Massachusetts) apparently has to put restrictions in
place, at least to a certain extent. The company says its coronavirus emergency
plans have taken effect to ensure that only personnel critical to production are
still working at its European and North American facilities, said Plasteurope.
However,
a spokesperson told Plasteurope that there will be no allocations, as the
company expects to have sufficient capacities to supply all customer
requests.
CEO Sean Keohane is anticipating solid figures for the first quarter. The low
demand in China between January and March was balanced out by strong order
activity in the rest of the world.
However, due to the challenging situation in the next weeks as well as the
accompanying insecurity in demand, Keohane has revised the full-year outlook,
which had previously not taken the virus pandemic into account. He expects
decreases in both sales and earnings in the third quarter, presumably among
other things because of the falling oil prices that will reduce raw material
costs – see Plasteurope.com of 19.12.2019.
Apart from the initiated takeover of carbon nanotube producer Shenzhen
Sanshun Nano New Materials, which is set to be complete in April 2020, Cabot
intends to reduce capital expenditures. Dividend payouts, however, will not be
suspended.
Carbon black is used in plastics, among other
things.
As MRC informed earlier,
Cabot Corporation has announced a planned investment in new capacity to enhance
its production capabilities for plastic formulations specifically for conductive
compounds and masterbatches for engineering thermoplastic
applications.
As MRC informed
earlier, in February of this year, the index of production of chemicals in
the Russian Federation grew by 9% compared with the same period a year earlier.
Thus, the cumulative release for the first two months of 2020, the release of
basic chemicals showed an increase of 6%, follows from Rosstat materials.
According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, the
largest increase in production volumes in January - February came from polymers
in primary form.
Cabot Corporation is an American specialty chemicals and
performance materials company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The
company operates in over 20 countries with 36 manufacturing plants, eight
research and development facilities and 28 sales offices. |
