Orion carbon black “extremely tight” in Europe

Luxembourg – Orion Engineered Carbon is running close to full capacity in Europe, Jack Clem, CEO of the carbon black manufacturer told analysts on a recent conference call.

Discussing Orion’s overall rubber and speciality products, Clem said “Europe [is] extremely tight, We were running in the sort of a low- to mid-90s, and it’s even tightened a bit more as we move through this year”.

“Although specialty tends to be more globally-focused as you know as opposed to regionally focused but the capacity utilizations tend to run about the same right now,” he added on the 4 Aug call to discuss Orion’s Q4 results.

There seems less pressure on supply in the US, Clem saying that “demand seems to be sort of clocking around that middle 80s” – even with a line taken out of production this year for a significant maintenance overhaul.

And, while that line is now back up and running, Orion plans to bring another line down by the end of this year.

“So we’re running, we think, a bit below capacity utilization in the US right now which is probably in the mid-80s or so,” said the CEO.

Clem went on to say that Orion’s Korea plant operate at a steady middle-to-high 80s, while its facilities in Brazil and China are “running quite tight.”

Comments sourced from a 3 Aug, Q3 conference call transcript by Seeking Alpha.