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Article: Carbon black makers face shift to east; as rubber processing companies are drawn by the attractions of low-cost manufacturing, carbon black suppliers face a need to move capacity out of Europe and North America.(Carbon black)(Industry Overview)
- Article from:
- European Rubber Journal
- Article date:
- December 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Surprisingly, perhaps, price is not the biggest issue in the carbon black industry today. According to Kennett Burnes, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Cabot Corp., a bigger issue is the long-term need to follow the key customers as they move their manufacturing out of high-cost countries and into low-cost regions.
"We are facing a large-scale migration of capacity towards the developing parts of the world," said Burnes. "It is so much lower cost to make tyres and rubber goods in these countries that the case for moving there among our customers is overwhelming. We believe this trend will continue," he added.
This view was echoed at all ...