Legado de Cubatão: Birla Carbon builds a chemistry with Brazil

As Birla Carbon's manufacturing plant in Cubatão, Brazil celebrates its 65th anniversary, let's follow its illustrious journey

Birla Carbon, the world's leading manufacturer and supplier of carbon black solutions, recently celebrated a significant milestone — the 65th anniversary of its Cubatão plant. Located in São Paulo, Brazil, this plant has not only established itself as a formidable player in South America's carbon black market, but has also contributed to Birla Carbon's global operations in a big way. Since its inception in 1958, the Cubatão plant has consistently demonstrated a commitment to operational excellence, environmental sustainability, and community service. It serves as a key supplier of carbon black for the local and regional markets, offering customised carbon black solutions for tyres, MRG, plastics, coatings, inks, and various other specialised applications.

Driver of sustainability

The Cubatão plant, with its substantial tonnage, is a sustainability stalwart, fulfilling its energy requirements through an in-house cogeneration unit that results in substantially lower carbon emissions. To improve its energy conversion efficiency, the plant invested in upgrading its cogeneration unit in 2019, improving boiler performance by 9.8% and a turbine performance by 14% in the year.

The big bag recycling programme

Years ago, the Cubatão plant spearheaded a unique initiative known as the 'big bag recycling programme', encouraging customers to return their used bags. Each of these large packaging bags can be reused at least six times before disposal, presenting an excellent opportunity to reduce waste within the valuechain.

The plant also works with companies to clean and repair bags that have been returned damaged or containing leftover scrap material. The team actively engages with customers, urging them to minimise damage when unloading the materials from the bag. The initiative has yielded significant cost savings for the plant, facilitating the recycling of close to 6,000 bags per month.

Community first

The plant has been actively involved in uplifting local communities through diverse education and healthcare initiatives. Its volunteers engage with high school students to help improve their career prospects. Students are also invited to visit the Cubatão plant to understand the carbon black manufacturing process first-hand.

Over the years, the Cubatão plant has also come to be regarded as one of the safest units within Birla Carbon. Stringent safety protocols are diligently enforced to ensure the well-being of both workers and contractors, reflecting the plant's commitment to maintaining a safe environment.