From ASTM to carbon black: Industry trends take spotlight at IEC Expo Theater

CLEVELAND—Learning always has been at the heart of the ACS Rubber Division's International Elastomer Conference. That is why discussions matter. They offer attendees the chance to explore big ideas, new trends and challenge new perspectives.

Those discussions took to the stage at the Expo Theater with a panel and presentation line-up intended to spotlight trends and encourage conversations around big ideas.

Here's a look at key takeaways from the Expo Theater on the first day of the 2023 IEC.

Across the rubber industry, big ideas are taking shape and transforming the future of the industry.

But as the industry collectively moves toward big sustainability aims—the 2050-deadline, net-zero-carbon-emissions kind—two things must be kept in perspective: performance and price.

Take, for instance, recovered carbon blacks. The sustainability benefits of those products are great, Lance Miller, R&D Fellow with Continental ContiTech, said during a panel discussion on sustainability. But the industry is still working out how to ensure consistency in the product. And that, in turn, can impact performance, which cannot be compromised.

"We would love for that to not be the case," Miller said. "But, in the meantime, until we get to that level and recovered blacks get a little bit better off, we have folks like Monolith that has a fine product that allows us to (replace some virgin) carbon black."

The success of bringing more sustainable materials to the industry through recycling isn't limited to end-of-life tires sector. Miller pointed to North Shore Rubber's success in bringing more circularity to non-tire rubber products as proof.

"We have taken a look at their material, and it works pretty well," Miller said. "… We have had great luck in trying to make new compounds. So it can be done, you just have to watch for performance and make the adjustments when necessary."

Another factor that plays a key role in ensuring the viability of new, more sustainable technologies is the price point. Often, new technologies—and especially those of the more sustainable variety—cost more. And as companies are making decisions about the kinds of materials they're using in their products, price has to be considered.

"It is not the best economic times out there and a lot of the people that ContiTech sells to is distribution and price is always king," Miller said.

"… Really we just have to keep our eyes on performance and cost and everything will be OK."

—Erin Pustay Beaven

Many themes emanated from the speakers of the Expo Theater at the Huntington Convention Center during the first day of the International Elastomer Conference—not the least of which was continued participation in the ASTM D11 committee.

"Engagement is critical," said Doug Foster, director of technical services at Ohio-based Ace Laboratories. "Without people, ASTM does not exist."

ASTM Committee D11 on rubber "and rubber-like materials" meets in June and December, with about 95 members attending over four days of technical meetings.

The committee, with a current membership of 373, has jurisdiction over 233 rubber industry testing (and other classification) standards, all of which are published in the annual book of ASTM Standards.

Specifically, D11 has 17 technical subcommittees which represent critical roles in properties, classification, nomenclature, analysis and quality assurance.

Foster touted the importance of continued engagement, saying that the regulations and thresholds require constant updates due to industry innovations.

And ASTM D11 does not discriminate by company or otherwise, pushing general industry know-how to the fore.

"ASTM goes beyond safety and quality," Foster said. "Its thrust is driving growth in the industry."

He added that the group helps "everybody be aligned" and is not about "any single business agenda."

"We are one of the world's largest and longest-standing standards," Foster said. "With transparency and coherence, we work across politics and geographic divides to recognize expertise."

Within the D11 chapter, there are more than 30 subcommittees and task groups, including those on carbon black, natural rubber, synthetic rubber, adhesives and coatings, and sustainability.

Members of the D11 committee include academics, professional societies, end users, regulatory agencies and product manufacturers.

— Andrew Schunk

To say the energy and petrochemical markets have been volatile the last few years would be an understatement. And when it comes to natural gas and crude oil, the industry is likely to see this volatility continue.

"Obviously things have been really volatile over the last few years, even over the last week," said Bill Hyde, vice president of olefins and elastomers at Chemical Market Analytics. For energy sources, particularly, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas have had their fair share of impact on prices for natural gas and crude oil, respectively.

And adding fuel to this fire is the struggle between supply and demand, he said. "And we've had a lot of relative disappointment in demand."

In his presentation on the petrochemicals market at the Expo Theater, Hyde gave attendees a look at where supply and demand trends across the industry are heading and how this could impact the pricing of many critical raw materials.

On one side, Hyde said, the "disappointment in demand is due to some economies around the globe that have recovered much slower than anticipated, putting mainland China at the top of this list.

"Then on the other side, we've had key crude oil producing countries, most notably Saudi Arabia and Russia, that have been reducing supply or reducing production in an effort to get the price up a little bit.

"We've had this kind of friction between disappointing demand, which wanted to pull the price down, and restricted supply in an effort to get pricing up," Hyde said.

Over the past few years, the industry saw the demand side winning, "but now the supply side restrictions are kicking in."

Hyde said this is why crude oil prices have been climbing over the last couple months, with the latest spike due to speculation on whether the conflict in the Middle East would spread to a wider conflict, "which would then potentially have a material impact on oil supply."

In the chemical industry, he said, a key concern is the relative pricing of natural gas and crude oil.

For natural gas, particularly, he said, the U.S. saw a spike in pricing when Russia first invaded Ukraine, but as the winter in 2022 ended up warmer than anticipated and inventories in Europe remained strong, prices fell dramatically.

But over time, he added, the export infrastructure in the U.S. will be built out, "and so the U.S. natural gas market is going to tighten up a little bit, and pricing will come up some."

"The point of this whole thing is that there has been some volatility between the natural gas price and the crude oil price," Hyde said.

— Sam Cottrill