The Notch Blog

As of the weekend, five carbon black plants remained shut down due to Hurricane Gustav: Cabot Corp. – Franklin, LA Cabot Corp. – Ville...

Rubber & Plastics News (subscription required) is reporting that Hurricane Gustav has damaged Lion Copolymer’s SBR plant in Baton Rouge...

The eye of Hurricane Gustav made landfall in the United States on September 1 at 9:30 a.m. near Cocodrie, Louisiana, which is about 70...

Lanxess plans to move its headquarters from the Leverkusen Chempark operated by its former parent Bayer AG to a new site most likely...

Perhaps the least surprising news of the day is that Americans are driving fewer miles due to high gas prices. More coverage here....

An intriguing possibility. According to the leading British newspaper, a flattened tyre of a Russian diplomatic car forced the...

From Reuters India comes news that Indian tire makers and other rubber users are asking the Indian government to eliminate the...

U.S. tire shipments are projected to decline by nearly 4 percent in 2008 compared to 2007, according to the Rubber Manufacturers...

Who would have thought that most mundane of all topics — proper tire inflation — would become a hot button political issue in the 2008 US...

Sorry for the lack of updates here. Have been working to complete the new edition of the World Markets for Precipitated Silica report,...

Beijing’s massive Olympic shutdown began on Sunday, July 20. According to an article in The China Post, “Half of Beijing’s 3.3 million...

In discussing Apollo Tyre’s first quarter results, Onkar Kanwar, Apollo’s Chairman and Managing Director, said, “These are probably the...

On a July 17, 2008, Lanxess AG announced the opening of a new Rubber Research Center (RRCQ) in Qingdao, Shandong Province. The center was...

For the last month or so, I’ve been hearing reports that a shortage of butadiene was causing sporadic supply problems in SBR and BR,...

On Wednesday, Goodyear Tire & Rubber announced plans to close its tire plant in Somerton, Victoria, Australia by the end of 2008. The...

The Chinese government has banned the production and shipment of numerous chemicals in the area surrounding Beijing during the run-up to...

The dismal US auto sales figures released this week were no surprise to anyone who has filled their gas tank recently. Reuters reports:...

On May 28, 2008, Cabot announced plans to build a carbon black masterbatch facility in the Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai. The plant will...

In April, Notch Consulting Group published a new report on the tire industry entitled Tire Industry Investment 2008. It is an Excel-only...

An interesting article from the New York Times on Gazprom’s recent activities. Last week, Dmitri A. Medvedev, Gazprom’s current chairman,...