Producer
Orion Engineered Carbons
NYSE-listed specialty carbon black producer; ~7% global share (1.37 Mt/yr). 15 plants on 3 continents. Operates world's longest-running carbon black plant at Kalscheuren/Cologne, Germany (est. ~1860s). Produces both rubber-grade (tire) and specialty-grade (ink, coatings, electronics) carbon black. 2024 10-K flagged structural demand headwind: elevated Chinese tire imports into North America and Europe displacing commodity CB demand.
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Specialty Carbon Blacks
45%Rubber Carbon Blacks (Tire)
40%Industrial Rubber & Non-Tire
10%Research & Innovation
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Did you know2022
Orion's ENSACO brand carbon black is a conductive additive used in lithium-ion battery electrodes — both cathode and anode — to provide the electron pathways that allow battery cells to charge and discharge efficiently. Every lithium-ion battery (EV batteries, laptop batteries, grid storage) contains a small percentage (typically 1-5% by weight) of conductive carbon black in its electrode formulations. Orion is one of a handful of qualified suppliers for this application alongside Cabot (Vulcan XC-72) and Imerys Graphite & Carbon. The same Orion facility that produces Printex printer toner carbon black produces ENSACO battery-grade carbon black — using the same furnace process with modified feedstock ratios and controlled quench conditions to achieve the specific surface area, structure, and purity needed for battery electrodes. A supplier known to the printing industry as a toner pigment company is thus also a critical supplier to EV battery cell manufacturers — a connection invisible to procurement teams at automotive OEMs who buy batteries from CATL and LG and have no visibility into the carbon black that goes inside.
Orion Engineered Carbons S.A. ↗Origin2022
Orion Engineered Carbons (NYSE: OEC), incorporated in Luxembourg and listed in New York, traces its corporate lineage through Evonik Industries back to Degussa AG (Deutsche Gold und Silber-Scheideanstalt — German Gold and Silver Smelting Company), a Frankfurt company founded in 1873. Degussa's carbon black operations were part of a broader specialty chemicals empire that included hydrogen peroxide, silica, and pharmaceutical intermediates. After reunification, Degussa merged into Evonik Industries, which divested the carbon black business to private equity (Rhone Capital) in 2011. Orion completed its NYSE IPO in 2014. The resulting company is unusual: a NYSE-listed specialty materials company with a German industrial heritage, headquartered in Luxembourg, with manufacturing in Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, South Africa, USA, and Brazil. Orion has invested heavily in specialty grades that commodity carbon black producers (Birla Carbon, Cabot) do not prioritize — particularly its ENSACO brand of highly conductive carbon black used as the electron-transport additive in lithium-ion battery electrodes, a growing market with a completely different customer base from its legacy tire and toner businesses.
Orion Engineered Carbons S.A. ↗