China. Orion Engineered Carbons and Evonik Industries (Evonik) announced transaction agreements in which Orion will acquire 52% of Evonik's shares, as well as 15% of Deutsche Investitions' stake in Qingdao Evonik Chemical Co., Ltd. (QECC).
QECC is a joint venture established in 1994 by Evonik, DEG and Jiaozhou Finance Investment Center (JFIC) based in Qingdao (Shandong Province), China. It has the production capacity of approximately 75 thousand metric tons of Black carbon per year. The plant is equipped with three production lines and its main manufacturing focus is of high-end carbon black products.
Through its proximity to key customers, connection to one of China's largest ports, and modern transportation infrastructure, qingdao's facility is an excellent logistics base for participation in future market growth.
"We are very pleased with the progress made in bringing this facility back into our global carbon black manufacturing network," said Jack Clem, CEO of Orion. "We believe this acquisition will greatly enhance our ability to serve the Chinese market, as well as the rest of Asia and the Pacific, beyond the current utilization of our global network for exports to that region."
