On August 19, Cabot Corp. announced that it will apply a Feedstock Surcharge of $0.03 per pound for all carbon black products sold by the Reinforcement Materials segment in North America, effective October 1, 2019 and to the extent allowed under customer contracts. This replaces the previously announced feedstock surcharge of $.01 per pound that has been in effect since April 1, 2019.
According to a company press release announcing the increase, the carbon black feedstock market in North America is seeing increasing effects from changes in the types of crude oil being refined and an increase in demand for low sulfur fuel oil associated with the upcoming 2020 International Maritime Organization (IMO 2020) regulation, also known as MARPOL. As a result, Cabot is seeing changes to the type and availability of material with the specific quality required to produce carbon black.