Acute shortage of carbon black chokes non-tyre rubber companies

Prices of carbon black have almost doubled in six months and trade at Rs 130 a kg in India

An acute shortage of carbon black is feared to have made the $3 billion (Rs  200 billion) non-tyre rubber industry cut production by 15 per cent over the past six months.

Carbon black contributes nearly 30 per cent to the input cost for the industry. The units are now staring at job losses and closure of units after the government levied an anti-dumping duty on tyre imports. Carbon black for non-tyre manufacturers has since been diverted to tyre makers, leaving non-tyre players struggling to get the crucial raw material.

Chairman and Managing Director of Oriental Rubber Industries Vikram Makar said: “Since the