re-FirstCall/ -- Cabot Corporation (NYSE: CBT) announced today that it intends to build a carbon black masterbatch manufacturing facility in the Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai. The plant will have an initial production capacity of 25,000 tons per year with provision to expand to 75,000 tons in the future. Cabot has secured a plot of land and construction will begin later this calendar year, with production scheduled to start in the fall of 2009.

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The state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will include the latest environmental and manufacturing technologies to ensure production of high-quality masterbatch products. Laboratories, administration offices, production and packaging will all be located within the building.

The Dubai plant will allow Cabot to better meet the increasing demand of its customers in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia Pacific regions. In recent years, the Middle East has become a major producer of polyolefins and downstream compounds and by 2010 is expected to produce one-fifth of the world's polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

Cabot Vice President and General Manager for the Performance Segment, Sean Keohane said, 'Within the Middle East there is already strong demand for PE and PP compounds for use in building infrastructure for water supply, electricity, and telecommunications projects. These are key markets for carbon black masterbatch. This new site will offer significant quality and service advantages to Middle East producers who are global exporters of masterbatch compounds.'

About Cabot

Cabot is a global specialty chemicals and materials company headquartered in Boston, MA. Its major products are carbon black, fumed silica, inkjet colorants, capacitor materials, and cesium formate drilling fluids. For more information visit http://www.cabot-corp.com.

SOURCE Cabot Corporation