Cancarb expansion adds 9,000 tonnes to annual production

By COLLIN GALLANT on February 24, 2021.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Cancarb has completed its expansion, the Medicine Hat-based manufacturer announced Monday.

Work to add a sixth carbon black production unit, at a stated cost of $40 million, began in 2019 and is now boosting output at the Brier Park facility by 20 per cent.

“The project was planned, constructed and commissioned safely utilizing more than 50 contractor groups,:” said project manager Jerimy Chisholm. “This amounted to more than 100,000 man hours of labour … (and was) completed without any serious injuries, nor incidents, during a pandemic.”

In late 2018, Cancarb parent company, Tokyo-based Tokai Carbon, announced that the expansion was needed to increase sales and take advantage of low cost natural gas feedstock in Alberta.

The work adds 9,000 tonnes to the annual capacity of the plant that now produces 54,400 tonnes of the material used in rubber, gaskets and tire production.

“The new unit provides Cancarb … significant flexibility to maintain our other five units while pursuing new growth,” said Chisholm.

Local firm, Hrancho, provided most of the piping and structural fabrication. A new 24-tonne storage bin perched within the line in August was built by Bow Island-based KamberFab.

The project also added warehousing space and the resulting waste heat from production adds to the output of electricity from the company’s cogeneration system.

According to statements in the initial announcement, the expansion would add nine full-time jobs at the facility that had a workforce numbering about 75.