Asahi Kasei has announced its decision to terminate the operations of Asahi Kasei Cord Co., Ltd and proceed with the company’s liquidation. Established in 1970 as a prominent manufacturer of nylon yarn for tyre cords, the subsidiary has served as a critical manufacturing and supply hub for Asahi Kasei’s nylon filament business.

Production will be surceased on 31 March 2024, and the plant closure will occur on 31 March 2025. Asahi Kasei Cord Co has around 70 employees who will be reassigned to other businesses of Asahi Kasei. The company said the impact on the supply chain to be avoided through consultation with customers. 

The company added that the impact on its consolidated financial results from this decision will be negligible.

The move comes in response to a challenging market environment for tyre cords in Japan, marked by sluggish growth in automobile production and heightened competition from product imports from other countries. Additionally, the recent surge in raw material and fuel prices has contributed to increased costs, leading to a significant decline in earnings.

As part of its ongoing business portfolio transformation, Asahi Kasei aims to reallocate its nylon filament management resources from general-purpose tyre cord applications to focus on airbag and speciality tyre cord applications. These areas are anticipated to offer promising growth opportunities, which will help enhance profitability and drive further expansion for the company.

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Cabot Corporation has announced a comprehensive global price adjustment for its portfolio of carbon black products. These changes, which are set to take effect immediately or as soon as individual contract terms permit, will see prices rise by up to 20 percent, with the exact percentage varying according to the specific product type and the regional market. This adjustment is not limited to the speciality carbons division; it will also be applied to the offerings from the company’s speciality compounds business.

In a strategic move to address persistent market volatility, Cabot is also implementing an ongoing surcharge on top of the base price increase. The company has indicated that this additional fee will be subject to regular and ongoing evaluation, allowing for adjustments that reflect the dynamic nature of current market conditions. The driving forces behind these significant pricing actions are multifaceted, rooted in substantial disruptions to global supply chains. These disruptions are largely attributed to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which has had a cascading effect on logistics. Compounding this issue are the sharply rising costs associated with transportation, energy and essential raw materials.

Cabot emphasises that these necessary pricing measures are fundamental to its commitment to maintaining operational stability. By implementing these changes, the corporation aims to secure its position as a dependable partner over the long term, ensuring it can continue to supply high-integrity speciality carbons, black masterbatches and conductive compounds to its global customer base without interruption.

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Kordsa, a subsidiary of Sabancı Holding, presented its advanced material technologies to a global audience at the JEC World 2026 trade show in Paris. The company featured its latest breakthroughs in composite technologies tailored for the aviation, energy and automotive sectors. The event also served as a platform for Kordsa to communicate its sustainable growth strategy and technological transformation to an international network of stakeholders.

Held from 10 to 12 March 2026, JEC World is recognised as the premier global event for the composites industry. By convening the entire value chain, the exhibition enabled Kordsa to prominently display its expanding role and expertise in composite materials. The company’s presence was reinforced by its international subsidiaries, including US-based Fabric Development, Inc., Textile Products, Inc. and Axiom Materials, Inc., alongside Italy’s Microtex Composites Srl., demonstrating a unified approach shaped by evolving market demands.

Among the key innovations showcased were Ceramic Matrix Composite (CMC) technologies, carbon-reinforced prepregs, thermoplastic automotive interior components and structural body parts. These solutions are engineered to deliver high performance and reduced weight while simultaneously boosting production efficiency and minimising carbon footprint. For the aviation and energy industries, the company highlighted advanced composites designed to meet stringent demands for high-temperature resistance, durability and operational reliability.

Ergun Hepvar, CEO, Kordsa, said, “JEC World is one of the most important global meeting points in the field of composite technologies. On this platform, which brings together the entire value chain of the industry, we have the opportunity to closely observe both the current state of technologies and the trends that will shape the future. This year, we clearly saw that solutions focused on sustainability, lightweighting, high performance and production efficiency are becoming increasingly decisive. At the same time, we witnessed a transformation in customer expectations towards more integrated, agile and sustainable solutions. As Kordsa, we will continue to be an active part of this transformation and to develop value-creating solutions together with our customers.”

Emphasising that Kordsa differentiates itself in composite technologies by offering an end-to-end integrated structure, from R&D and serial production to supply chain and certification processes, Hepvar further added, “The increasing demand for advanced material solutions further strengthens our position in composites. We position composite technologies as one of our two strategic focus areas in Kordsa’s future. In this field, we adopt an approach that expands technological depth, product diversity and application areas simultaneously. Composite technologies stand out as a core area shaping both Kordsa’s present and future. Our goal is to deepen our capabilities here, build a structure that generates higher added value, differentiates itself and grows together with its customers.”

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The Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (REDISA) called out the country’s waste tyre recycling system a ‘ticking time bomb’. The country with an estimated population of about 62 million has more than 13 million registered vehicles including roughly eight million passenger cars and generates an estimated 200,000–250,000 tonnes of waste tyres from road vehicles alone each year.

This has created a major environmental and waste-management challenge alongside rising vehicle ownership.

Commenting on the issue, Executive Director of Operations at REDISA Stacey Jansen told Tyre Trends, “Waste tyre management in South Africa has, in effect, collapsed since the Waste Management Bureau under the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DDFE) took over in 2017. The effect is overfull depots posing significant fire risks including the dumping and burning of tyres illegally causing harmful chemicals to seep into groundwater and causing severe air pollution.”

“Economically, a huge opportunity is being missed, in that a structured management programme geared towards recycling can not only create jobs but also contribute to the circular economy as a whole. This was precisely what REDISA did between 2013 and 2017,” she added.

She also stated that internal research has shown that a functional waste plan for just 13 waste streams could raise South Africa’s GDP growth by 1.5 percentage points. For a country struggling with unemployment and stagnation, this is an avenue that must be pursued.

REDISA alleges serious governance failures within the DFFE and the Waste Management Bureau. The first problem is that no dependable data exists.

“We all know that there is a problem, but we don’t know the extent of it. The department’s figures and reports are filled with inconsistencies and errors and this impacts any effective decision-making on how to fix the issue of waste tyre management,” said Jansen.

Secondly, she argues that there does not seem to be a realisation that the government cannot handle waste tyre management on its own as it does not have the expertise, technology or experience.

Thirdly, more headline-grabbing issues such as conservation and climate, which are important, of course, receive a lot of attention. But ground-level interventions such as waste management, while not as media-friendly, offer real and relatively immediate ways to address environmental and economic problems, she stated.

THE BOMBARDING

The Biesiesvlei depot fire in 2023 caused extensive environmental damage. Alluding to the lessons learned from the incident, Jansen said, “This is a question perhaps best posed to the DFFE. Since that disaster, we have not seen a country-wide response that puts the safety of citizens and the environment first. If something isn’t done on a national scale, more depots will burn, releasing extremely toxic pollutants into the air.”

Moreover, the auctioning of nearly R100 million (USD 5–5.5 million) worth of unused pre-processing equipment has been called an ‘admission of failure’ by REDISA. Commenting on this, Jansen said, “We wish the government could tell us how they ended up idle. Either they bought the wrong equipment or they were unable to deploy it. The right decisions were clearly not made by the leadership in the department.”

Moreover, the exclusion of small businesses and micro-collectors from the current system has also impacted tyre collection, illegal dumping and rural employment.

According to Jansen, from 2013 to 2017, REDISA managed waste tyres in South Africa. In a short space of time, it built 22 tyre collection centres, employed more than 3 000 people and created 226 small waste enterprises.

This was all funded by a management fee levied on plan subscribers (producers and importers) as part of the approved Industry Waste Tyre Plan. In February 2017, following a legislative change, the state imposed an environmental levy, which replaced the fee REDISA was collecting. The levy is still being collected today, but the producers and the citizens are not seeing their money channelled into effective waste tyre management.

In fact, more than half of the money collected is going into the general tax fund. The result has been job losses, mostly in urban areas.

REDISA also claimed that the government underspent on tyre transport due to lack of storage space. Answering how does this contradiction affect the integrity of the waste tyre management system, she said, “The department admits this underspend and gives the reason in its latest annual report. They are silent on the consequences, but it can only lead to illegal dumping and burning of tyres. If you drive by almost any informal settlement or urban fringe in South Africa, you will see dumped tyres. And this could be transformed into an asset under the right system.”

CLEAR VIEW

During her interaction, Jansen encouraged citizens and journalists to visit waste tyre depots in their communities and see if they adhere to safety standards viz-a-viz 6-metre fire breaks between heaps, 8-metre gaps to buildings and fences, maximum heap size of 10 metre x 20 metre and more.

Collectors and transporters regularly complain to REDISA that the situation at the overfull depots and dumps have worsened so much since 2017 and that they are deeply concerned.

Questioning the sustainability of the current approach, Jansen said that generating nearly 70,000 waste tyres every day makes an over-reliance on storage depots deeply flawed. “This is not sustainable at all. The only outcome will be increased air pollution, contaminated groundwater and heightened fire risks. It is an attempt to apply a band-aid to the problem without addressing its root cause,” she said.

Jansen was equally critical of the DFFE’s decision to issue tenders for 32 new depots covering close to one million square metres. According to her, the move signals more than a stop-gap response. “I would describe it as an acknowledgement of defeat and clear evidence of an inability to effectively address tyre recycling in South Africa,” she added.

Reflecting on South Africa’s earlier leadership in circular tyre waste management, Jansen said restoring that position would not require sweeping policy or structural reforms. “The DFFE does not need new frameworks or radical changes. What is required is leadership that acknowledges the scale of the crisis and a willingness to return to a model that has already proven its worth, the internationally recognised REDISA model,” she said.

The warning signs are no longer theoretical. Idle equipment, expanding depots and rising illegal dumping point to a system drifting further from circularity. Without decisive leadership and a return to proven, accountable models, South Africa risks compounding environmental damage, economic loss and public health threats, allowing a ticking time bomb to keep counting down.

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Ecolomondo Corporation, a leading Canadian innovator in sustainable scrap tyre recycling technology, has engaged August Brown, LLC as an independent risk advisor. This appointment supports the planning stages for a new facility in Shamrock, Texas. The firm will conduct a validation of the project's business plan and risk management approach, a step taken in preparation for marketing the green bond that will finance the development.

The proposed Texas site will feature a six-reactor plant, replicating the company’s proprietary, modular Thermal Decomposition Process (TDP) technology currently operating at its Hawkesbury, Ontario, facility but with triple capacity. This expansion follows the successful commercialisation of Ecolomondo’s proprietary TDP technology. Local support has been secured through the Shamrock Economic Development Corporation, along with a 136-acre industrial site and long-term feedstock agreements intended to supply ongoing operations.

August Brown's role will begin with a comprehensive feasibility study examining business, market and financial risks. A subsequent phase will focus on engineering, technology validation and project execution risks. This independent review process aims to improve transparency and strengthen confidence among potential bondholders and project partners. The project represents the next phase in the company's growth strategy, replicating its proven modular technology on a larger scale.

Eliot Sorella, Executive Chairman, Ecolomondo, said, “Independent validation of our technology, projected operations and financial model for our planned Shamrock Facility is an essential step that resonates strongly with investors, lenders and potential joint-venture partners.”

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