Waste tires may change

Orion, a well-known carbon black supplier, has issued another important notice to the tire industry.

Material Update Notice
The good news is that Orion did not issue a price increase notice. Recently, Orion issued a press statement that its "recyclable" carbon black has been "listed", providing a viable alternative to carbon black made from liquefied petroleum.

In the press release, Orion's CEO said that its recyclable carbon black is part of Orion's long-term development strategy.

The core driving force of the recyclable carbon black project is the growing demand for recyclable carbon black products in response to sustainable development requirements in the tire industry.

Therefore, Orion has been expanding the production capacity of its tire pyrolysis project in recent years and innovating in its series of sustainable development measures to provide cost-effective solutions for tire companies. It is reported that Orion's recyclable carbon black project is funded by the European Union. At the same time, the project is affiliated with the BlackCycle project led by global tire giant Michelin.

Public information shows that the BlackCycle sustainable development project includes seven industrial partners and five research and technology organizations to design a pioneering process for making new tires from waste tires. At present, the BlackCycle project has ended, but Orion said it is continuing its research on the recycling of waste tires and continuing to implement other similar initiatives to reduce carbon footprint, increase production and throughput, and reduce material costs.

In 2024, the company launched the "Clean Carbon Black R&D Project", which was funded by 6.4 million euros from the German government and the European Union. Orion said that the focus of this new project is to develop a climate-neutral process to replace carbon sources to produce carbon black.

After a series of sustainable results were released and the launch of thermal cracking carbon black products, the European Commission recently included Orion in its "Innovation Radar".

The price of waste tires has risen sharply
The recycling of waste tires has been the most discussed topic in the tire industry in the past five years. After all, major tire companies have released plans for the development and listing of 50% and 100% sustainable tires.

Now, it is less than 5 years away from the deadline for each company to publish tires with a 50% sustainable material ratio. This also means that more tire companies have an "urgent" demand for sustainable materials. At present, carbon black products and pyrolysis oil obtained from the pyrolysis of waste tires are the most commonly used sustainable tire materials by major tire companies.

Therefore, as time continues to move towards 2025, the demand for sustainable carbon black is rising rapidly. This is why the price of waste tires has experienced a surge in less than five months. Institutional data shows that in November 2024, the recycling price of 900-1200 waste steel wire tires remained at around 1,650 yuan per ton. By March 2025, the price of similar products had soared to 1,800 yuan per ton, an increase of 10%.

In 2024, many Chinese tire companies have also updated their sustainable development plans. The demand for waste tires is gradually increasing due to greener tires. In the next three months, will its price continue to rise like the current tire market?