OREANDA-NEWS. Effective for  all shipments made on or after May 1, 2016, or as customer contracts allow, Cabot Corporation is increasing prices on  all carbon black products in its Reinforcement Materials segment sold in the  Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

Cabot  continues to face significant cost pressures and sourcing challenges for  oil-derived feedstocks that are specifically selected for the production of  carbon black in the EMEA region. While every effort is made to optimize the  procurement of such feedstocks, the changing energy market conditions that began  in 2015 have intensified and remain unabated. This has caused Cabot's raw  material costs to increase as compared to relative fuel oil indices that are  largely used to determine carbon black prices, resulting in an unfavorable  differential to the Company.

Price  adjustments will be implemented between 60 to 90 €/MT, in addition to any applicable  feedstock index-related adjustments, for carbon black products in Cabot's  Reinforcement Materials segment.

"We continue  to take actions to minimize the impact of feedstock costs, but it is necessary  to appropriately adjust prices to help offset these market conditions," said  Aled Rees, vice president and regional business director, EMEA region,  Reinforcement Materials segment. "We are seeing significant growth in the  transportation segment and related applications in the automotive and  industrial rubber markets that is driving increased demand for Cabot's high  quality rubber blacks produced in the EMEA region. Our main focus will  always be to provide our customers with the quality carbon black products and  services that they have come to expect, and we will continue to do our best to  control costs and provide superior product value."

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, fumed silica, and aerogel.