SHIJIAZHUANG - China's Risun Chemicals Co., Ltd. and its US joint venture partner, the Cabot Corporation, broke ground on a new carbon black plant in North China's Hebei province Wednesday.

The project, located in the city of Xingtai, is scheduled to be completed in mid-2013 with an investment of about 900 million yuan ($143 million). The Boston-based Cabot owns a 60-percent equity interest in the plant.

The new facility will have an output capacity of 130,000 tonnes of carbon black per year in its first phase and will enable Cabot to increase its carbon black manufacturing capacity in China by 25 percent, said Patrick Prevost, Cabot's president and CEO.

Carbon black is a reinforcing agent essential in the manufacturing of tires. The material is also used in many automotive parts, including adhesives and sealants, battery materials, coatings and others.

"This new facility, which will be built through close cooperation between Cabot and Risun, will be a state-of-the-art carbon black production center and will support local employment and help to meet the growing demands of the Chinese market." said Yang Xuegang, chairman and president of Risun.

Founded in 1995, the Risun Group has businesses in the coking, chemical and trade industries. It is one of the biggest coal product manufacturers and suppliers in China and boasts four industrial parks in the cities of Xingtai, Dingzhou, Tangshan and Cangzhou.

Cabot is a global specialty chemical and performance materials company. The company's major products include carbon black, fumed silica, inkjet colorants, aerogel, elastomer composites and cesium formate drilling fluids.