How BKT Is Ring-Fencing Its Carbon Future

BKT Industries is positioning itself as more than just a tyre manufacturer. The company is aggressively scaling its carbon black business, moving from a model of internal consumption to a technology-led, market-facing strategy focused on high-margin speciality applications.

BKT has identified a critical niche in EV battery materials, where specialised carbon black acts as a conductive additive to enhance battery performance. This move places BKT deeper into the electronics and energy storage supply chains, moving away from commodity-grade products toward "performance blacks".

Satish Sharma, Senior President & Director (Business Development and Strategy) remarked, "The second aspect is to, you know, do better and better in the non-tyre category. So, get into the performance blacks and get into the speciality blacks. So, which is where the real technology, I mean, not real technology, different technology, but it is more remunerative, more specialised, and therefore, more margins".

Pacing Capacity Expansion

BKT’s expansion is backed by substantial industrial scaling. The company’s carbon black business has already completed one expansion phase to reach a capacity of 265,000 tonnes, with a second phase currently being commissioned to bring that total to 350,000 tonnes. However, the long-term roadmap is even more ambitious, with a stated vision to reach 600,000 tonnes (6 lakh tonnes) in capacity.

Increasing Third-party Sales

Historically, BKT’s carbon black production was primarily for captive use, serving its own tyre manufacturing needs. That dynamic has flipped. Currently, third-party sales account for 60% of the business, and leadership aims to raise this to above 70% in the near term. By selling more to external customers, BKT can capture the remunerative margins offered by specialised categories.

The application list for these speciality blacks extends far beyond it. BKT is targeting high-performance sectors, including specialised plastics, coatings,  paints, and high-performance cables, which also have usages in the automotive sector. Management notes that these segments require different R&D efforts and a more specialised team compared to supplying standard tyre OEMs, marking an emergence of BKT as a serious carbon black business in its own right.

"Our whole objective is to increase the mix in the favour of performance black and speciality blacks... it will start reflecting as you see the business standing... you will hear more and more from BKT around the carbon black" Sharma added.
This strategy is a cornerstone of BKT’s 2030 growth vision, which targets a total revenue of Rs 23,000 crore. Within this framework, the carbon black division is projected to account for 10% of total revenue.

Competition is Intensifying

Companies such as PCBL Chemicals, Birla Carbon, and Himadri are some of the significant players in the performance black speciality space.  All three are already said to be investing heavily in non‑tyre, specialty‑black applications. Furthermore, Birla Carbon and PCBL, in particular, already have global and pan‑Indian scale, strong R&D capabilities, and long‑running relationships with global auto and chemical OEMs, while Himadri has recently scaled its specialty‑black capacity to position it as one of the largest single‑location specialty‑black sites in the world. From the competition point of view, BKT will not be entering a white‑space market but rather competing for share in a crowded.

Way Forward

To support this evolution, BKT has restructured its corporate architecture, giving the carbon business its own distinct brand identity and leadership focus. By "ring-fencing" these various divisions, the company intends to allow the carbon black segment to develop its own momentum as a technology-driven material supplier for the next generation of automotive and industrial products.