Outlook bright for carbon black?

摘要

After a period of strong demand and tightness of supply the carbon black market showed signs of cooling towards the end 2018. Birla Carbon president Europe & Africa, John Davidson is detecting "cautious optimism" in his region for the rest of the year, with predictions of 1-2% growth in Europe. "Our customers are feeling reasonably confident that they can deliver that," Davidson told ERJ during the Tire Tech Show, in Hanover, 6 March. While the automotive industry has witnessed a "huge amount of volatility", the macrotrend is still that people want to own vehicles and drive more miles, he continued. A positive side of the tire market is the truck and bus tire market -particularly in Europe, added Davidson, who joined Birla Carbon just over a year ago. "If you look at that segment, many of the tire makers are forecasting nice growth.... There seems to be confidence that truck & bus tires are going to be underpinning growth for European tire makers this year," said the Birla Carbon official.