Kuraray Co, a Japanese Chemical manufacturing conglomerate has officially acquired Calgon Carbon Group for USD 1.1 Billion. Calgon would operate as a separate subsidiary of Kuraray in the functional Metals segment, along with Kuraray’s Carbon Material Business Division.

United States: Calgon Carbon Corp., a Pittsburgh-based company has officially been acquired by Kuraray Co. Ltd., a Japanese chemical manufacturing company.

Kuraray had announced last year that it would acquire Calgon Carbon for $1.1 billion. Calgon builds purification systems for water, air and food through coal, wood and coconut-based activated carbon. The company will now operate as a separate subsidiary of Kuraray in the Functional Materials segment along with Kuraray’s Carbon Material Business Division. The CEO and other executive management team members will stay with the company, as announced by Calgon.

The CEO of Calgon in an interview stated that the acquisition is a new beginning. Calgon Carbon’s products, technologies, and commitment to customers have been the driving force of the business for the last 75 years. With the support of Kuraray, there are endless possibilities the company can achieve.

Kuraray’s Representative Director and President in a statement, said that with the acquisition, Kuraray takes its carbon materials business a notch up than ever before with the addition of a global focus on activated carbon, activated carbon services, and filtration media. The company believes that this complementary combination will enable significant synergies and growth opportunities.

The acquisition will place Calgon among the five-biggest foreign-owned companies in the Pittsburgh region with more than 1,300 employees, according to data from the 2017-18 Pittsburgh Business Times Book of Lists.

According to TechSci Research, the acquisition of Calgon Carbon by Kuraray Co opens huge potential for the Carbon Black Market. Carbon black is virtually a pure form of elemental carbon manufactured through incomplete combustion or thermal decomposition of heavy hydrocarbons. Being one of the most important industrial chemicals manufactured worldwide, carbon black finds application in an array of industrial goods and products including tires, plastics, inks, coatings, etc. Tire industry is the leading consumer of carbon black, globally, as the industry uses it as a reinforcing filler to improve the longevity of tires.

According to the recently published report by TechSci Research, “Global Specialty Carbon Black Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2020”, global specialty carbon black market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of more than 6% during 2015-2020 on account of increasing demand from end user industries including plastics, printing inks & toners, and paints & coatings. In 2014, Asia-Pacific garnered a lion’s share in global specialty carbon black market owing to booming infrastructure, construction and automotive sectors in the region. Global specialty carbon black market is majorly dominated by three players, which include Orion Engineered Carbons, Cabot Corporation and Birla Carbon. These companies are heavily investing towards new product development and improvement of quality and functionality of the existing products. Few of the other major players operating in global specialty carbon black market include China Synthetic Rubber Corporation, Zaozhuang Xinyuan Chemical Industry Co. Ltd., Sid Richardson Carbon & Energy Co., and Tokai Carbon Co. Ltd., among others.

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