05 Feb rCB News January 2024
Dear colleagues & friends of recovered Carbon Black,
Happy new year 2024 to you all! Here is your January dose of recovered Carbon Black news!
It is always good to start with gratitude and respect. Despite a really tough year for all of us, I personally am very grateful for the love & friendships in 2023 and for the business collaborations I had in 2023. I am amazed how much and whereto I actually travelled when I re-watch my travel 2023 reel on Youtube !
Planning the year 2024
If you are like me, you maybe are still in the planning process for 2024. I am starting my yearly planning with my strategic focus projects and then with major events like fairs and conferences.
My personal strategic focus with recovered carbon black
My strategic focus in 2024 is to work with companies who want to invest into rCB and with companies who are in due diligence of an investor; and to shoot and edit my rCB Documentary film.
Events for recovered carbon black
The first event I am going to is the Tire Technology Expo from March 19th-21st, where I will moderate a conference session and present an update about the rCB industry.
On April 16th will be the EuRIC – The European Recycling Industries Tyre Recycling Day “Reinventing the Wheel: Advancing tyre recycling”. Last year’s event had a ASDDFSh
From April 17th – 19th will be the ETRA European Tyre Recycling Association Conference. The pyrolysis forum will (again) be at the very ending of the event on Friday, but it is organised by my friend Jean-Paul BOUYSSET (π) and therefore a staple event in my conference rotation.
The Smithers Carbon Black World will be on May 14th – 15th. I am member of the advisory board, I am scouting keynote presenters and I will present and run two workshops. Please note though that this event primarily focusses on furnace carbon black, not recovered carbon black.
The THE TIRE COLOGNE is from June 4th – 6th and my friends from the AZuR-Netzwerk will have a big stand there (400 m2).
The new Smithers recovered Carbon Black Asia conference will be inaugurated on September 24th – 25th in Qingdao, China. We already have a draft agenda!
Finally, the popular Smithers recovered Carbon Black Conference will be in the month of November.
On most events I will either film or live broadcast. Let me know if you are interested!
Overall economy and effect on recovered carbon black
Last year was a year of geopolitical issues, cost increases, inflation and generally more volatility, at least in Europe. The USA were not hit that much and did not slip into recession, unemployment was low and inflation even got better in the course of the year.
How might this year pan out?
Well, nobody has a reliable crystal ball, but it is the season of foresight webinars.
What about our industry? I believe the damage of creeping rCB industry progress in 2023 could be causing a supply off-set of more than 12 months, because impacted ventures first have to recover to get back to where they have been at the beginning of 2023.
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Despite the overall better economical conditions in the USA, the two only industrial US rCB producers both had severe financial problems, both caused by investor ruptures and lack of investor support.
Paul and I will interview major voices from the industry again for an update to our popular industry reference report. I have the impression that this time our forecast might not only be time-shifted but also look quite different.
In any case, I believe that collaborations will be pivotal to the success of the whole industry and we might have some positive news still this quarter.
As posted previously, I find that the best and most likely investor for the recovered carbon black industry comes from the tire, carbon black or petro industry, but best from a combination of those.
EU tire industry
The EU tire industry had tough markets last year and it appeared to me that some of the big companies are in raw materials cost cutting mode rather than in sustainability investments mode.
But, due to the slower rubber industry activity in EU, the 2023 EU supply gap for carbon black might have been less than the usual 600 ktp and in consequence the pressure to adapt new materials as replacement for Russian carbon black imports was a little bit less than anticipated.
Top Carbon Mastermind Group
In the next weeks I am reaching out to both selected recovered carbon black producers and interested buyers to form a small mastermind group to bring recovered carbon black commoditisation forward.
I believe this kind of collaboration will speed up the availability of recovered carbon black of defined quality and refining, making it easier for interested buyers to commit to purchase agreements and for producers to go to market.
The mastermind group will combine existing proposals for recovered carbon black specifications and classification under real industry conditions.
This mastermind will run over 3 months and will have a monthly fee for participants.
If you are either on the supply or demand side and want to participate, please send me a message or email and I will run you through qualification, process and detailed objectives.
Thanks and keep in mind: π§πΎπ½ ππ€π¨π¨πππ‘π
Have a question? Want to work with me?
Contact me on the live webchat on the lower righthand corner of this window or by email!
Or, browse the digital products in my webshop here, for example the new Carbon Insider Newsletter, my rCB pricing guide or the popular industry reference report Prospects for recovered Carbon Black !