Cabot Corporation Celebrates 30 Years of Success and Development in China

Mar 27, 2018 09:00 pm
SHANGHAI -- 

Today, Cabot Corporation, a global leader in specialty chemicals and performance materials, celebrated the 30th anniversary of its operations and continued development in China. Over the past 30 years, Cabot has achieved remarkable success in China by focusing on integration into the local market. During this time, Cabot has invested nearly $700 million in China, and revenue in the country currently accounts for nearly 20% of Cabot Corporation’s total sales.

Deeply enrooted in China with in-depth cooperation

Founded in 1882, Cabot has a long history of global leadership and has built a strong portfolio of high-performing specialty chemicals and materials in businesses with leading market positions. Following China’s economic reform and opening up of the country to foreign investment, Cabot was one of the first multinational companies to invest in China. In 1988, in an effort to support the growth of the local tire and automotive market with the production of its specialized carbons, Cabot established its first entity in China, Shanghai Cabot Chemical Co., Ltd., with joint venture partner Shanghai Huayi Energy Chemical Co., Ltd. (formerly Shanghai Coking & Chemical Corporation). Today, Cabot and Shanghai Huayi will continue this legacy of strong collaboration by signing an agreement to renew their joint venture partnership for an additional 20 years. This clearly demonstrates Cabot’s commitment not only to its cooperative partnerships, but to continuing to grow and develop in the Chinese market.

Over the past 30 years, Cabot has built a strong position in China with highly competitive assets, strong and enduring partnerships and an unrelenting commitment to the country. This commitment has allowed Cabot to develop deep insights into the local market and become recognized as the partner of choice by leading customers. Cabot currently has its Asia Pacific Technology Center and Asia Pacific regional headquarters in China. Over the past 10 years, Cabot has achieved annual local production capacity growth of 20% with its plants established in Shanghai, Tianjin, Jiangxi and Hebei. With locations throughout China, Cabot can more easily deliver innovative solutions and collaborate with its customers.

Responsible enterprise in pursuit of sustainable development

Cabot is intensely committed to integrating its technical capabilities with sustainable business practices to ensure the safety of its employees, customers, products, communities and the environment. Over the past 30 years, Cabot has invested significant capital in process equipment and infrastructure to maintain regulatory compliance, increase energy efficiency and minimize its impact on the environment in China. Specifically, it has employed state-of-the-art technologies for waste water treatment, desulfurization, denitration and dedusting. Through deep integration with its partners, Cabot has also developed systems to utilize by-product waste streams to create sustainable, closed-loop systems.

Cabot is dedicated to being a leader, promoter and practitioner of Responsible Care, and has been highly recognized by local governments and communities for its safety, health and environmental performance. Such recognitions include:

  • The Shanghai plant is one of the first clean production pilot enterprises in Shanghai, as well as the first carbon black enterprise to receive ISO 14001 certification and the title of “clean production” in China.
  • The Tianjin plant is the first chemical plant in China to achieve RC14001 certification, which demonstrates Cabot’s global commitment to the principles of Responsible Care.
  • The Jiangxi plant has operated for 11 years with zero safety and environmental incidents.
  • The Xingtai plant has achieved five million man-hour safe operation without any recordable incident since its construction in 2011.

Advancing application innovation

Cabot recognizes that materials innovations will continue to drive and enable advancements across a diverse set of applications. In 2017, Cabot launched a new Asia Technology Center in Shanghai to enable more efficient collaboration, and innovation with our customers throughout Asia Pacific. Through its experienced research and development team and state-of-the-art technology, Cabot is bringing materials innovation to market to meet the unique demands of its Chinese and Asian customers across a wide range of applications.

Sean Keohane, president and chief executive officer, said, “Cabot’s success over the past 30 years in China is due to our unyielding commitment to the country, the tremendous efforts of our dedicated employees, the trust and support of our customers and partners, and the strong support from all levels of the Chinese government. Considering China’s rising demand for transportation, infrastructure, energy and housing, we see increased demand for our products to drive technology innovation for the future. We will continue to invest in the Chinese market to provide leading innovative solutions for our customers throughout the Asia Pacific region.”

Jeff Zhu, president of the Asia Pacific region, said, “We have witnessed Cabot’s successful development in China over the past 30 years, and are proud of our achievements. However, we are fully aware of the challenges ahead. Cabot will continue to extend our leadership in China by providing value added products and services to customers, investing in state of art facilities, and relentlessly leading sustainable development throughout the chemical industry.”

ABOUT CABOT CORPORATION

Cabot Corporation (NYSE: CBT) is a global specialty chemicals and performance materials company, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company is a leading provider of rubber and specialty carbons, activated carbon, inkjet colorants, cesium formate drilling fluids, masterbatches and conductive compounds, fumed silica, and aerogel. For more information on Cabot, please visit the company’s website at: http://www.cabotcorp.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in the press release regarding Cabot's business that are not historical facts are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Cabot Corporation
Vanessa Craigie, 617-342-6015
Corporate Communications