A carbon black price for plastics has no free, dated, sourced figure anywhere today, unlike titanium dioxide at USD 3,200 per tonne (2025, US Geological Survey) or antimony at USD 25 per pound (2025 average, USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026), the two additive raw materials the United States Geological Survey does track. This guide states that gap plainly, then covers what actually sets the cost anyway: the grade and particle size, the masterbatch loading, the regulatory cap, and the small number of producers that concentrate world supply. Carbon black sits in the colorants family among the 43 families of plastic additives, and its cost logic differs from a mineral filler because combined inks, coatings and plastics use accounts for only 10% of world output; tyres take 70% and other rubber goods 20% (Wikipedia, compiled industry data), so a plastics compounder buys into a market a much larger industry sets the terms for.
The sections below cover why no public price index exists, the 5 factors that decide what a compounder actually pays, the grades and forms sold into plastics, how to compare 2 supplier quotes on the same basis, and how this guide is reviewed. A separate profile covers the identity, the CAS number and every application; this page stays on price and grade economics only.
What Does Carbon Black Cost in Plastics?#
Carbon black costs more than a bulk mineral filler and less than a speciality organic pigment, and every published number that touches its price belongs to the tyre and rubber market it primarily serves, not to plastics. No government agency, trade statistic or freely reproduced price assessment states what a compounder pays for the pigment itself. The figure a supplier quotes instead depends on 3 things that never appear in a public statistic: the grade requested, measured by ASTM N-number and primary particle size; the loading the application requires; and the volume ordered. The full identity, CAS number and regulatory profile of the pigment appear on carbon black in plastics.
Why Is There No Published Price Series for Carbon Black?#
No agency publishes a free, dated carbon black price because none of the 3 source types that cover other plastics additives happens to track it: government mineral statistics, trade statistics, and price-reporting-agency assessments that a free primary source has reproduced. Titanium dioxide and antimony clear that bar. Carbon black does not.
How Titanium Dioxide and Antimony Get a Published Price and Carbon Black Does Not#
Titanium dioxide and antimony earn a published price because the United States Geological Survey tracks them as mineral commodities, and carbon black is absent from the Mineral Commodity Summaries because it is manufactured from a feedstock, not mined. Titanium dioxide pigment entered the United States at USD 3,200 per tonne in 2025 on a landed duty-paid import basis, and antimony averaged USD 25 per pound in the same year on an Argus assessment that the USGS reproduces (US Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). The full 5-year series for the mineral raw material with a published price, and the grade context behind it, sits on titanium dioxide price. Carbon black has no equivalent entry in that publication, in UN Comtrade or in Eurostat Comext at the level of a single named pigment.
Marketplace Offers and Price-Reporting Agencies#
Marketplace listings publish a number immediately, but none of them states a grade, a delivery basis or a date that a second buyer can compare it against. Price-reporting agencies such as ICIS, Argus and ChemAnalyst assess the plastics additives that trade in the highest volume, and the narrow slice of that coverage that reaches a free primary source, such as the antimony figure the USGS reproduces from Argus, does not include carbon black. Every carbon black assessment that exists today is sold, not published, which is why this guide states a gap instead of a guess. A verified alternative to an unverified marketplace listing is the carbon black manufacturers and suppliers directory, where every listed company can be asked for a quote against a fixed specification.
What Drives the Carbon Black Price? 5 Price Drivers#
Five things set what a compounder pays for carbon black even without a public index: the tyre market that buys 90% of world output, the concentration of production among a small number of global producers, the grade and particle size ordered, the regulatory cap on how much goes into a part, and the volume actually purchased.
Downstream Demand from Tyres and Rubber Sets the Market's Scale#
Tyres and other rubber goods absorb 90% of world carbon black output, 70% into tyres and 20% into other rubber products, leaving combined inks, coatings and plastics use at 10% (Wikipedia, compiled industry data). Global carbon black consumption reached 13.2 million tonnes with an estimated value of USD 13.7 billion in 2015 (Wikipedia, compiled industry data). Dividing one figure by the other would produce a derived average price with no stated grade, delivery basis or current year, so this reference does not publish that calculation; it states the 2 source figures and stops there.
Supply Concentration Among Three Global Producers#
Three companies named across the plastics industry's own technical literature as carbon black producers for plastics, Cabot, Orion Engineered Carbons and Birla Carbon, concentrate world supply enough that their individual capacity and pricing decisions move the market more than a fragmented commodity would. A buyer sourcing from any of the three is, in effect, negotiating against a tyre-driven cost base rather than a plastics-driven one. The wider producer landscape for plastics additives, including how concentrated each family is, is ranked on largest plastic additive companies.
Grade and Particle Size Change the Price#
A finer primary particle size costs more to produce and disperse, and the plastics industry names its carbon black grades by that particle size. N550 grade carbon black, at 40 to 48 nanometers, is sufficient for standard pressure pipe, while N330 (26 to 30 nm) or N110 (under 20 nm) grades are specified where the part faces outdoor exposure beyond 3 to 5 years (Ampacet technical guidance). Smaller primary particles give higher jetness and stronger UV protection but are harder to disperse, so a finer grade costs more to both manufacture and process (Ampacet technical guidance).
Regulation and NIR Sortability Add a Substitution Driver#
A regulatory cap changes demand rather than setting a price directly: carbon black is limited to a maximum of 2.5% by weight of the polymer in EU food-contact articles under Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 (FCM No 411), in US food-contact articles under 21 CFR 178.3297, and in materials that contact drinking water under EU Implementing Decision 2024/367 (entry 0348). Carbon black also carries an IARC Group 2B classification for airborne, unbound respirable particles and a California Proposition 65 cancer listing dated 21 February 2003 (OEHHA), and it fails near-infrared sorting under the Association of Plastic Recyclers' Design Guide (criterion SORT-S-01: colour value L* below 40, or NIR reflectance at or below 10%, fails sortability). That sortability failure is pushing recycled-content packaging toward NIR-sortable black colorants, iron oxide black and titanium-nitride-based blacks as substitutes. The caps and classifications that apply across the additive list, family by family, are tracked under plastic additive regulations.
Dosage and Application Volume Decide the Purchase, Not Just the Price#
The dosage decides how much of the price a formulation actually pays. A PE pressure pipe compound carries 2.0 to 2.5 wt% carbon black under ISO 4427, while a PET reheat application uses only 0.1 to 8.0 ppm, preferably 1.5 to 3.5 ppm, at a preferred particle size of 15 to 30 nm (US Patent 4,408,004). That 3-order-of-magnitude range between a pipe compound and a reheat additive means the same price per kilogram of carbon black produces a very different cost per tonne of compound depending on the application. The typical dosage range for every additive function, not only carbon black, is listed under additive dosage levels in plastics.
Carbon Black Grades and Forms Used in Plastics#
Plastics buy carbon black in 4 forms: powder, pelletized (beaded) powder, liquid dispersion and masterbatch, and the grade inside each is set by the ASTM N-number, which tracks primary particle size. Every one of those forms is ultimately let down into a base resin the way any masterbatch is, at a ratio the compounder, not the carbon black grade, controls.
| Grade or form | Particle size or content | Typical plastics use | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| N550 | 40 to 48 nm | Standard PE pressure pipe (ISO 4427) | Sufficient unless outdoor exposure exceeds 3 to 5 years (Ampacet) |
| N330 | 26 to 30 nm | Pipe and parts with longer outdoor exposure | Finer grade, harder to disperse than N550 (Ampacet) |
| N110 | Under 20 nm | Maximum UV screening and jetness | Finest standard grade named in the plastics technical literature (Ampacet) |
| Black masterbatch (pipe) | 35 wt% CB standard; above 40 wt% avoided | Let down at 5 to 6.5% (19:1 to 14:1) into PE pipe | Carrier resin MLDPE or LLDPE, melt index below 20 (Ampacet) |
| PET reheat grade | 10 to 500 nm, preferred 15 to 30 nm | 0.1 to 8.0 ppm, preferred 1.5 to 3.5 ppm | Raises 80-second reheat temperature; US Patent 4,408,004 |
Carbon Black Loading in Black Masterbatch and the Let-Down Ratio#
A standard North American black masterbatch for pressure pipe carries 35 wt% carbon black and is let down at 5 to 6.5% into the base resin, a ratio of 19:1 to 14:1 (Ampacet technical guidance). Masterbatches above 40 wt% carbon black are avoided because dispersion quality falls faster than the loading rises (Ampacet technical guidance), a limit that applies to any black masterbatch formulation regardless of carrier resin. A buyer comparing 2 masterbatch quotes has to convert both to the same finished-part carbon black loading before comparing a price per kilogram; that conversion, price per kilogram of masterbatch times let-down fraction, is the job of the additive dosage and cost-in-use calculator.
How to Read and Compare a Carbon Black Quote#
Two carbon black quotes are comparable only when both state the same 5 things, because "carbon black" alone names a chemical, not a specification. The grade, the delivery basis, the form, the volume and the test standard all change what the price actually buys.
- Fix the grade by ASTM N-number or primary particle size, not by the name "carbon black" alone.
- Fix the delivery basis, such as ex-works or landed duty-paid, and the currency.
- State the form and, for a masterbatch, the active carbon black content and the let-down ratio.
- State the volume, the packaging and the minimum order quantity.
- Confirm which specification the batch is tested against, such as ISO 4427 for pipe grade, EU 10/2011 FCM 411, or 21 CFR 178.3297 for food contact.
Send one specification to verified suppliers and compare the quotes on the same basis through the plastic additive supplier finder.
How This Price Guide Is Built, Sourced and Corrected#
This guide publishes only what a named, dated public source states, and because no such source exists for a carbon black price today, it publishes the drivers and the grades in place of an estimate. Four rules govern every update:
- Only a figure with a named source, a stated basis and a year, the day one becomes available.
- Never a modelled or estimated price, and never a marketplace offer presented as a market price.
- A quarterly review for new supplier, regulatory or grade information.
- An immediate correction when a primary source publishes a carbon black figure this guide does not yet carry.
Corrections and independence follow the editorial policy: independence, sources and corrections that governs every guide on this site.
How This Guide Relates to the Other Plastic Additive Price Guides#
This carbon black guide is 1 of 8 price guides on the site, and it sits beside 4 others that also carry no free published price today: PE wax, calcium and zinc stearates, calcium carbonate and silica. The full set of 8 guides, the 6 data sources they draw on and the 6 drivers common to all of them are compared on plastic additive prices.
Conductive Carbon Black and NIR-Sortable Alternatives#
Conductive carbon black is a separate grade family from the pigment grade this guide prices, engineered for electrical dissipation rather than colour or UV protection, and its own properties and price context are covered on conductive carbon black. Where NIR sortability rules out a standard pigment grade, formulators substitute iron oxide black (PBk11), copper chromite black (PBk28), perylene blacks (PBk31, PBk32) or a NIR-detectable black colorant, all part of the wider colorants for plastics family this pigment belongs to.