Cancarb extends Tokai carbon black presence in North America

Cleveland, Ohio – Cancarb Ltd. is launching Tokai Carbon Co.'s furnace carbon black in North America, with ASTM grades fully stocked and available from its warehouses in Ohio and Illinois.

The move is part of Tokai Carbon's larger plan to grow its presence in North America. The firm purchased Cancarb in 2014 and has been using the Medicine Hat, Alberta-based firm as a springboard into North America.

“We understand that the North American market is a growing market for carbon black,” Masafumi Tsuji, general manager of Tokai's Carbon Black Division, said at the recent International Elastomer Conference in Cleveland. “We have a desire to have a site in the northern part of America, but we are not in a specific plant now.”

Tsuji said the Japan-based company is the largest and longest serving carbon black producer in Japan, having been in production for more than 97 years.

Tokai's furnace grades will be added to Cancarb's Thermax medium thermal carbon black line, giving it a complete range of products to offer customers.

Prior to its acquisition of Cancarb, Tokai didn't have a way of selling its grades to the North American market.

“By having us here, they hope to take the true Japanese quality that they manufacture of premium product and have it available to customers in North America,” said Ross Buchholz, Cancarb's vice president of marketing. “Along with the service that Cancarb provides presently in the market, they get the advantage of the Cancarb service levels we're known for combined with a high quality Japanese producer.”

Cancarb produces its Thermax brand of thermal carbon black products from its facility in Canada and markets them to customers in 44 countries, the firm said in a news release.