Carbon Black Feedstock & Creosote Oil (Coal-Tar Carbon Black Oil, Anthracene Oil, Creosote)

Coal-tar carbon black oil and anthracene oil on BMCI and sulphur; creosote oil for authorised wood treatment

High-temperature coal tar distillation leaves heavy oils that go two ways: to carbon black plants as feedstock, and as creosote to wood treaters. Creosote is the part of coal tar that distils as heavy or dead oil, typically between 230 and 270 °C, and anthracene oil is the heaviest distillation cut, distilling between about 270 and 400 °C. Carbon black is made by incomplete combustion of coal tar and of petroleum products such as fuel oil and fluid catalytic cracking tar, and a carbon black plant buys its oil on BMCI (the Bureau of Mines Correlation Index of aromaticity) and sulphur. One Indian distiller describes its carbon black oil as a blend of a heavier oil fraction and soft pitch, sold to carbon black makers who prefer its higher BMCI and low sulphur to imported feedstock, and sells anthracene oil for carbon black manufacture; another runs its own distillation to make feedstock for its carbon black plant. Customs follow the product: creosote oils are HS 2707.91, other oils from high-temperature coal tar distillation fall under HS 2707.99, and the EU tariff has its own line, 2707 99 91, for these oils when used to manufacture the carbon of heading 2803. UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations under HS 2707.91 total USD 163 million and about 209,600 MT across 20 reporters: Korea USD 54 million and 93,800 MT (33.2%), Canada USD 40 million and 35,600 MT, Taiwan USD 37 million and 35,600 MT, Australia USD 20.5 million and 31,100 MT, South Africa USD 3.1 million and Spain USD 2.4 million. HS 2707.99 is a USD 21.6 billion basket led by the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, because heading 27.07 also covers similar products in which aromatic constituents outweigh non-aromatic ones, so it is read as context, not as a carbon black oil market size.

Creosote is a regulated wood preservative. In the EU, Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1950 renewed its approval for product-type 8 biocides, and since 30 April 2023 only railway sleepers and utility poles treated with creosote may be placed on the market, in the Member States that ECHA lists for those uses; sale of creosote is limited to professional users. In Great Britain the renewed approval runs from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2033 for railway sleepers, transmission poles and safety-critical fencing to BS 8417 service factor D, and from 1 April 2027 treated timber may not be placed on the market for non-safety-critical fencing, tree stakes, marine applications and similar uses. In the USA creosote is a restricted-use pesticide available only to licensed applicators, and IARC rates coal-tar creosote as probably carcinogenic to humans. At sea, creosote (coal tar) is a chapter 17 IBC Code cargo at pollution category X, ship type 2. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers carbon black oil and anthracene oil to carbon black producers, and creosote oil to industrial wood treaters for authorised uses, from distillers in Korea, Canada, Taiwan, Australia, South Africa, Spain and India, against the distiller named on the certificate of analysis, SGS or Intertek sampling at load, the safety data sheet and a named buyer; offers built on tank storage receipts, dip tests, SCO/ICPO/FCO sequences or advance fees are not worked. Carbon black itself is on the carbon black page. Send the product, BMCI and sulphur limits or the creosote specification, tonnage and discharge port, and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.