Orion S.A.’s New Sustainability Report Highlights Contribution to Electrification

Company expands role in powering the future with conductive additives for electric vehicle batteries, energy storage systems and power cables

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Orion S.A. (NYSE: OEC), a global specialty chemicals producer, today released its 2024 Sustainability Report, showcasing how the company is making materials that are essential for a world with increased electrification of mobility and energy storage.

For more than a century, Orion has been supplying battery makers. The new report highlights how the company is expanding its presence in high-growth markets driven by the shift toward electrification.

Key opportunities include supplying differentiated conductive materials for:

• Battery energy storage systems, which are in high demand due to the rise in renewable energies as well as the expansion of energy-intensive data centers.
• High-voltage wire and cable applications, essential for electrification infrastructure.
• Lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, a market that continues to grow despite short-term fluctuations.

“Discussions about battery materials often focus on metals, such as lithium, cobalt and nickel. But conductive additives, such as carbon black, are just as critical,” Orion CEO Corning Painter said. “Every battery needs them because they improve electron mobility, battery performance, safety and reliability.”

The report also details how Orion’s acetylene-based conductive additives are the purest of all commercially available carbon blacks and have the lowest carbon footprint. Last year, the company broke ground on a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in La Porte, Texas, that will be the only U.S. facility of its kind producing the material.

“We see sustainability as a strategic business opportunity,” Painter said. “Our ultra-pure conductive additives are helping power the global energy transition, from electric vehicles to grid-scale storage batteries. We’re proud to support and help enable a cleaner, more electrified future.”

The Sustainability Report can be downloaded from the Sustainability page on Orion’s website: https://orioncarbons.com/sustainability/.

About Orion S.A.

Orion S.A. (NYSE: OEC) is a leading global supplier of carbon black, a solid form of carbon produced as powder or pellets. The material is made to customers’ exacting specifications for tires, coatings, ink, batteries, plastics and numerous other specialty, high-performance applications. Carbon black is used to tint, colorize, provide reinforcement, conduct electricity, increase durability and add UV protection. Orion has four innovation centers and produces carbon black at 15 plants worldwide, offering the most diverse variety of production processes in the industry. The company’s corporate lineage goes back more than 160 years to Germany, where it operates the world’s longest-running carbon black plant. Orion is a leading innovator, applying a deep understanding of customers’ needs to deliver sustainable solutions. For more information, please visit orioncarbons.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This document contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement. New risk factors and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible to predict all risk factors and uncertainties, nor can we assess the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information, other than as required by applicable law.