UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 10-K

For the fiscal year ended September 30, 20172023

or

For the transition period fromtofrom to

Commission File Number 1-5667

Cabot Corporation

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (617) (617) 345-0100

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934: Common Stock, Par Value $1.00 per share, traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934: None.

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.

Yes☒No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.

Yes ☐No☒

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.Yes☒No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).Yes☒No ☐

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the Registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.☒

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company”, and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by checkmark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive‐based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D‐1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).

Yes ☐No ☒

As of the last business day of the Registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter (March 31, 2017)2023), the aggregate market value of the Registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates was $3,706,582,334.$4,276,465,633. As of November 17, 2017,13, 2023, there were 61,949,64655,309,058 shares of the Registrant’s common stock outstanding.

Portions of the Registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 20182024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this report.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Information Relating to Forward-Looking Statements

This annual report on Form 10-K contains “forward-looking statements” under the Federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements address expectations or projections about the future, including our expectations regarding our future business performance and overall prospects; future cash flowsegment and cash return to shareholders; segment growth;product line growth and the assumptions underlying our growth expectations; demand for our products;products, customer destocking in our end markets and the short-term nature of customer cautious buying behavior, particularly in our Performance Chemicals segment; research and development activities; the recommencing of work on our Cilegon, Indonesia plant expansion for reinforcing carbons and the start-up of this facility; when we expect construction ofthe conversion for battery applications at our site in Tianjin to be completed; our expectations with respect to our new fumed silica plantsEMEA Technology Center in Wuhai, China and Carrollton, Kentucky and our infrastructure improvement and mining projectMünster, Germany; the extension of the compliance date for the installation of technology controls at our minefacility in Manitoba, Canada to be completed;Ville Platte, Louisiana and the extension of the compliance date for the installation of technology controls at our facility in Sarnia, Ontario; our 2025 Sustainability Goals; our ambitions for our EVOLVE® Sustainable Solutions technology platform; the sufficiency of our cash on hand, cash provided from operations and cash available under our credit and commercial paper facilities to fund our cash requirements; anticipated capital spending, including environmental-related and technology controls capital expenditures; regulatory developments; our ability to manage workplace exposures to carbon nanotubes; cash requirements and uses of available cash, including future cash outlays associated with long-term contractual obligations, restructurings, contributions to employee benefit plans, environmental remediation costs and future respirator liabilities;liabilities and the timing of such outlays; exposure to interest rate and foreign exchange risk; future benefit plan payments we expect to make; future amortization expenses; our expected tax rate for fiscal 2018; our ability to recover deferred tax assets; our operating tax rate; and the possible outcome of legal and environmental proceedings. From time to time, we also provide forward-looking statements in other materials we release to the public and in oral statements made by authorized officers.

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, potentially inaccurate assumptions, and other factors, some of which are beyond our control or difficult to predict. If known or unknown risks materialize, our actual results could differ materially from past results and from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements are described in Item 1A in this report.

We undertake no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Investors are advised, however, to consult any further disclosures we make on related subjects in our 10-Q and 8-K reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).

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PART I

General

Item 1. Business

General

Cabot is a global specialty chemicals and performance materials company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Our principal products are rubberreinforcing and specialty gradecarbons, specialty compounds, conductive additives, carbon blacks, specialty compounds,nanotubes, fumed metal oxides, activated carbons, inkjet colorants aerogel, cesium formate drilling fluids, and fine cesium chemicals.aerogel. Cabot and its affiliates have manufacturing facilities and operations in the United States (“U.S.”) and over 20 other countries. Cabot’s business was founded in 1882 and incorporated in the State of Delaware in 1960. The terms “Cabot”, “Company”, “we”, and “our” as used in this report refer to Cabot Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries.

Our vision is to be the most innovative, respected and responsible leader inIn early fiscal 2022, we introduced our markets – delivering performance that makes a difference. Our“Creating for Tomorrow” growth strategy. This strategy is to extend our leadership in performance materials byfocused on investing for advantaged growth, developing innovative products and processes that enable a better future, and driving continuous improvement in our core businesses, driving application innovation with our customers, and generating strong cash flows through efficiency and optimization.all we do. Our products are generally based on technical expertise and innovation in one or more of our four core competencies: making and handling very fine particles; modifying the surfaces of very fine particles to alter their functionality; designing particles to impart specific properties to a formulation; and combining particles with other ingredients to deliver a formulated performance intermediate or composite. We focus on creating particles, and formulations of those particles, with the composition, morphology and surface functionalities to deliver the requisite performance to support our customers’ existing and emerging applications.

Our four business segments are:is currently organized into two reportable segments: Reinforcement Materials;Materials and Performance Chemicals; Purification Solutions; and Specialty Fluids. TheChemicals. Our business segments are discussed in more detail later in this section. Financial information about

Both of our segments operate globally, and a significant portion of our revenues and operating profits is derived from operations outside the U.S. In particular, China continues to be an important producer of tires and products for automotive applications and since we made our initial investment in China in 1988, we have increased our operations in China to support increased demand for our products in China. In addition, a significant portion of battery manufacturers for electric vehicles are located in China, and, in the near term, we anticipate a material portion of the future growth of our Battery Materials product line to be derived from our business and operations in China. We employ local management teams for our operations in China, and our business model in China is predominantly to make and sell product in-country to established local and multi-national customers with operations in China. In fiscal 2023, sales in China across our segments appearsconstituted approximately 25% of our revenues, and our property, plant and equipment located in “Management’s DiscussionChina constituted approximately 25% of our total property, plant and Analysisequipment as of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Item 7 below (“MD&A”) andSeptember 30, 2023, as disclosed in Note ST to our Consolidated Financial Statements. There are legal, operational and other risks associated with having substantial operations in China, which are more fully described under the heading “Risk Factors”, including the risks described under the headings: “We are exposed to political or country risk inherent in doing business in some countries, including China”; “Information technology systems failures, data security breaches, cybersecurity attacks or network disruptions have harmed us in the past, and could compromise our information, disrupt our operations and expose us to liability, which may adversely impact our operations”; “The continued protection of patents, trade secrets and other proprietary intellectual property rights is important to our success”; “Negative or uncertain worldwide or regional economic conditions or trade relations, as well as regional conflicts, may adversely impact our business” and “Our tax rate and other tax obligations are dependent upon a number of factors, a change in any of which could impact our future tax rates and financial results”. Given the size of our Notescurrent operations in China and the future growth we anticipate from those operations, if our ability to operate in China were to be constrained by legal, regulatory and operational risks, it could have a material negative impact on our overall operations and the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 below (“Note S”).value of our securities.

Our internet address is www.cabotcorp.com. We make available free of charge on or through our website our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically filing such material with, or furnishing it to, the SEC. Information appearing on our website is not a part of, and is not incorporated in, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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Reinforcement Materials

Products

Carbon black is a form of elemental carbon that is manufactured in a highly controlled process to produce particles and aggregates of varied size, structure and surface chemistry, resulting in many different performance characteristics for a wide variety of applications. Rubber gradeReinforcing carbons (a class of carbon blacks manufactured by Cabot) are used to enhance the physical properties of the systems and applications in which they are incorporated.

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Our rubber blacksreinforcing carbons products are used in tires and industrial products. Rubber blacksReinforcing carbons have traditionally been used in the tire industry as a rubber reinforcing agent to increase tread durability and are also used as a performance additive to reduce rolling resistance and improve traction. In industrial products such as hoses, belts, extruded profiles and molded goods, rubber blacksreinforcing carbons are used to improve the physical performance of the product, including the product’s physical strength, fluid resistance, conductivity and resistivity.

In addition to our rubber blacks products,reinforcing carbons, we manufacture compoundsengineered elastomer composites (“E2C®”) solutions that are composites of carbon blackreinforcing carbons and rubber made using our patented elastomer composites manufacturing process. These compoundscomposites improve abrasion/wear resistance, reduce fatigue of rubber parts and reduce rolling resistance compared to carbon black/reinforcing carbons/rubber compounds made entirely by conventional dryrubber mix methods.methods enabling rubber product manufacturers to reduce the need to make performance trade-offs. The use of E2C®solutions enables our customers to produce better performing tires, including giant off-the-road tires and on-road commercial tires, as well as other rubber products used in aggressive applications. Additionally, because E2C®solutions can be integrated into current product methods without additional significant capital investment, and require fewer mixing stages, lower mixing temperatures and shorter mixing cycles than conventional products, operating and production costs may be reduced. E2C® is one of our focus areas for growth, which we refer to as “growth vectors”.

In fiscal 2023, we launched EVOLVE® Sustainable Solutions, our technology platform focused on developing sustainable reinforcing carbons and other performance materials with reliable performance at industrial scale. Our ambition under this platform is to work with customers and technology partners to develop products across three sustainability categories: Renewable, Recovered and Reduced, meaning products made with renewable materials or materials recovered from end-of-life tires and/or using processes that result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Drivers of Demand and Sales and Customers

Demand for our Reinforcement Materials products is largely driven by the growth and development of the tire and automotive industries. In addition to general global economic conditions, demand for reinforcing carbons in tires is mainly influenced by the number of replacement and original equipment tires produced, which in turn is driven by (i) vehicle and driving trends, including the number of miles driven, and the number of vehicles produced and registered, (ii) changes in supply chain inventory levels to adapt to end-market demand, (iii) demand for high-performance tires, (iv) demand for larger tires and larger vehicles, such as trucks, buses, off-road vehicles used in agriculture, mining and similar vehicles, (v) consumer and industrial spending on new vehicles and (vi) changes in regulatory requirements impacting vehicle fuel efficiency and tire regulations. Demand for reinforcing carbons for industrial products is mainly influenced by vehicle production and design trends, construction activity and general industrial production.

Demand in the developed Western European, Japanese, and North American regions is mainly driven by demographic changes, customers’ high-quality requirements, stringent tire regulation standards, changes in consumer preference (e.g., different tire sizes, model and powertrain types), and relatively stable tire replacement demand. Demand in developing markets, such as China, Southeastern Asia, South America and Eastern Europe, is mainly driven by the growing middle class, rapid industrialization, infrastructure spending and increasing car ownership trends. The growth in vehicle production in turn drives demand for both original equipment tires and replacement tires in developing regions.

Sales of rubber blacks productsreinforcing carbons and E2C®solutions are made primarily by Cabot employees and secondarily through distributors and sales representatives. We typically “make and sell” in region, which, among other advantages, provides our customers a regional supply chain and typically reduces transportation costs. Sales to threefive major tire customers represent a material portion of Reinforcement Materials’ total net sales and operating revenues. The loss of any of these customers, or a significant reduction in volumes sold to them, could have a material adverse effect on the segment.

Under appropriate circumstances, we have entered into supply contractsarrangements with certain customers, the typical duration of which is one year. Many of these contractsThese arrangements typically provide for sales price adjustments to account for changes in relevant feedstock indices including natural gas and, in somemany cases, changes in other relevant costs (such as the cost of natural gas)CO2 credits in Europe). In fiscal 2017,2023, approximately halftwo-thirds of our rubber blacksreinforcing carbons volume was sold under these supply agreements.arrangements. The majority of the volumes sold under these agreementsarrangements are sold to customers in the Americas and Europe.

We have licensed our patented elastomer composites manufacturing process to Manufacture Francaise des Pneumatiques Michelin for their exclusive use in tire applications through fiscal 2017, and for a period of limited exclusivity in tire applications through fiscal 2019. As consideration, we receivereceived quarterly royalty payments extending through calendar year 2022.

Much of the rubber blacksreinforcing carbons we sell is used in tires and automotive products and, therefore, our financial results may be affected by the cyclical nature of the automotive industry. However, a large portion of the market for our products is in replacement tires that historically havehas been less subjectcyclical as demand for replacement tires is correlated to automotive industry cycles.miles driven.

Competition6

Competition

We are one of the leading manufacturers of carbon black in the world. We compete in the manufacturesale of carbon blackreinforcing carbons with twofour companies that operate globally and numerous other companies that operate regionally, a number of which export product outside their region.region of manufacture. Competition for our Reinforcement Materials products is based on product performance, quality, reliability, price, service, technical innovation, sustainability performance, and logistics. We believe our product differentiation, technological leadership, global manufacturing presence, operations and logistics excellence, sustainability performance, and customer service provide us with a competitive advantage.

Raw Materials

The principal raw material used in the manufacture of carbon blackour reinforcing carbons is a portioncomposed of the residual heavy oils derived from petroleum refining operations, the distillation of coal tars, and the production of ethylene throughout the world. Natural gas is also used in the production of carbon black.our reinforcing carbons. Raw materials are, in general, readily available and in adequate supply. Raw material costs generally are influenced by the availability of various types of carbon black feedstockour feedstocks and natural gas, supply and demand of such raw materials and related transportation costs. Importantly, movements in the market price for crude oil typically affect carbon black feedstock costs.

Operations

We own, or have a controlling interest in, and operate plants that produce rubber blacksreinforcing carbons in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, the Czech Republic, France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands and the U.S. An equity affiliate operates a carbon blackreinforcing carbons plant in Venezuela. In addition, we have a 98% ownership interest in an entity that manufactures our E2C® products in Port Dickson, Malaysia.

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The following table shows our ownership interest as of September 30, 20172023 in rubber blacks operations in which we own less than 100%:

Performance ChemicalsDuring fiscal 2019, we began engineering work on an expansion of our Cilegon, Indonesia plant to add approximately 80,000 metric tons of capacity for reinforcing carbons to our network. In fiscal 2020, after a review of our capital allocation priorities, we temporarily suspended further work on this expansion. We are restarting work on this project and anticipate this additional capacity becoming available in fiscal 2025.

Performance Chemicals is composedOne of two businesses: (i) our Specialty Carbons and Formulations business, which manufactures and sells specialty gradesthe main environmental challenges of a carbon black plant is the management of exhaust gas from production processes. This exhaust gas contains a number of regulated pollutants, including carbon monoxide and sulfur compounds. Our most common method for controlling these gases is through combustion, which produces useable energy as a by-product. Currently, nine reinforcing carbons manufacturing sites and four reinforcing carbons/specialty compounds and inkjet colorants, and (ii)carbons manufacturing sites have energy centers, which allow us to utilize these gases through some form of energy co-generation, such as the sale or reuse of steam, gas or electricity. Depending on our Metal Oxides business, which manufactures and sells fumed silica, fumed alumina and dispersions thereof and aerogel. capacity utilization, our energy centers generally reduce our manufacturing operating costs. In addition, we generate revenues from our energy center sales.

Performance Chemicals

In Performance Chemicals, we design, manufacture and sell materials that deliver performance in a broad range of customer applications across the automotive, construction, infrastructure, energy, inkjet printing, electronics, and consumer products sectors.sectors and in applications related to the generation, transmission and storage of energy. In this reporting segment we combine our specialty carbons, specialty compounds, battery materials, fumed metal oxides, aerogel and inkjet product lines. Our focus areas for growth, which we refer to as “growth vectors”, include conductive additives and other materials for battery applications, and inkjet dispersions for post print corrugated packaging applications. The recent investments we have made for growth in this segment, including in respect of these specific areas of focus, are described below under the heading “Operations”.

Products7

Specialty Carbons and Formulations BusinessProducts

Carbon black is a form of elemental carbon that is manufactured in a highly controlled process to produce particles and aggregates of varied structure and surface chemistry, resulting in many different performance characteristics for a wide variety of applications.

Our specialty grades of carbon blackcarbons are used to impart color, provide rheology control, enhance conductivity and static charge control, provide UV protection, enhance mechanical properties, and provide formulation flexibility through surface treatment. These specialty carbon products are used in a wide variety of applications, such as plastics, which applications represent the largest use for our products, inks, coatings, plastics, adhesives, toners, batteries, and displays.

Our masterbatch and conductive compound products, which we refer to as “specialty compounds”, are formulations derived from specialty grades of carbon blackcarbons mixed with polymers and other additives. These products are generally used by plastic resin producers and converters in applications for the automotive, industrial, packaging, infrastructure, agriculture, consumer products, and electronics industries. As an alternative to directly mixing specialty carbon blacks, these formulations offer greater ease of handling and help customers achieve their desired levels of dispersion and color and manage the addition of small doses of additives. In addition, our electrically conductive compound products generally are used to help ensure uniform conductive performance and reduce risks associated with electrostatic discharge in plastics applications.

Our inkjet colorantsbattery materials products include our conductive additives and fumed alumina, which are high-quality pigment-based blackused principally in advanced lead acid and color dispersions based onlithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles. Our conductive additives consist of conductive carbons, carbon nanotubes and carbon nano structures, and blends of these materials, each of which offers different levels of conductivity and formulation flexibility for battery manufacturers to address performance (energy density, fast charging), cost and safety. In lithium-ion batteries, our patented carbon black surface modification technology. The dispersionsconductive additives are used in aqueous inkjet inksboth cathode and anode applications to impart color, sharp print characteristicsincrease energy density by providing a conductive network between active materials. Fumed alumina is used to reduce cathode material and durability, while maintaining high printhead reliability. These products are used in various inkjet printing applications, including commercial printing, small office/home officeelectrolyte decomposition and corporate office, and niche applications that require a high level of dispersibility and colloidal stability. Our inkjet inks, which utilize our pigment-based colorant dispersions, are used in the commercial printing segment for digital print.improve capacity retention leading to longer battery cycle life.

Metal Oxides Business

Fumed silica is an ultra-fine, high-purity particle used as a reinforcing, thickening, abrasive, thixotropic, suspending or anti-caking agent in a wide variety of products for the automotive, construction, microelectronics, batteries and consumer products industries. These products include adhesives, sealants, cosmetics, batteries, inks, toners, silicone elastomers, coatings, polishing slurries and pharmaceuticals. FumedIn addition to its battery applications discussed above, fumed alumina, also an ultra-fine, high-purity particle, is used as an abrasive, absorbent or barrier agent in a variety of products, such as inkjet media, lighting, coatings, cosmetics and polishing slurries.

Aerogel is a hydrophobic, silica-based particle with a high surface area that is used in a variety of thermal insulation and specialty chemical applications. In the building and construction industry, the product is used in insulative sprayable plasters and composite building products, as well as translucent skylight, window, wall and roof systems for insulating eco-daylighting applications. In the specialty chemicals industry, the product is used to provide matte finishing, insulating and thickening properties for use in a variety of applications.applications including thermal runaway management for lithium-ion batteries.

Our inkjet colorants are high-quality pigment-based black and color dispersions and inks. Our dispersions are based on our patented pigment surface modification technology and polymer encapsulation technology. The dispersions are used in aqueous inkjet inks to impart color, sharp print characteristics and durability, while maintaining high printhead reliability. These products are used in various inkjet printing applications, including traditional work-from-home and corporate office settings, and, increasingly, in commercial and corrugated packaging, all of which require a high level of dispersibility and colloidal stability. Our inkjet inks, which utilize our pigment-based colorant dispersions, are used in the commercial printing segment for graphic arts.

Drivers of Demand and Sales and Customers

Our specialty carbons products have a wide variety of end-uses and demand is largely driven by the growth and development of the construction and infrastructure, automotive, electronics and consumer products industries. Demand for our conductive additives for use in batteries is largely driven by the trend in electrification of vehicles. Demand for fumed silica is mainly influenced by trends in key markets for silicones, adhesives and coatings applications, notably, structural adhesives for automobile light-weighting, epoxy bonding paste for wind turbines, high-performance coatings and hybrid sealants for construction and silicones for medical devices and the proliferation of electronics. Demand for specialty compounds is mainly influenced by growth and development of the automotive, infrastructure, consumer goods and electronic devices, packaging and agriculture industries.

Demand for our inkjet colorants is mainly influenced by developments in print media, pages printed in office and work-from-home environments, as well as press sales and utilization levels as digital aqueous pigment-based inks penetrate commercial and packaging applications historically served by analog printing methods.

Sales of these products are made by Cabot employees and through distributors and sales representatives. In our Specialty Carbonsspecialty carbons and Formulations business,specialty compounds product lines, sales are generally to a broad number of customers. In our Metal Oxides business,fumed metal oxides

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product line, sales under long-term contracts with twofive customers have accountedaccount for a substantial portionapproximately one-third of the revenue. In our battery materials product line, sales to three customers account for approximately 50% of revenue.

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Competition

We are a leading producer of the products we sell in this segment. We compete in the manufacturesale of carbon black with twothree companies that operate globally and numerous other companies that operate regionally, a number of which export product outside their region. Weregion of manufacture. For battery applications, we compete primarily with two global companies that manufacture conductive carbons as well as a number of smaller regional manufacturers. For carbon nanotubes, we compete primarily with one Chinese-based company. For battery applications, we compete primarily with one manufacturer of fumed alumina that operates globally. For fumed silica, we compete with two companies with a global presence and several other companies that producehave a regional presence. For aerogel, we compete globally principally with one other company that produces aerogel products. We also compete with non-aerogel insulation products manufactured by regional companies throughout the world. For specialty compounds.compounds, we compete with many regional companies and a small number of global companies. Our inkjet colorants and inks are designed to replace traditional pigment dispersions and dyes used in inkjet printing applications. Competitive products for inkjet colorants are organic dyes and other dispersed pigments manufactured and marketed by large chemical companies and small independent producers. For fumed silica, we compete primarily with two companies with a global presence and several other companies which have a regional presence. For aerogel, we compete principally with one other company that produces aerogel products. We also compete with non-aerogel insulation products manufactured by regional companies throughout the world.

Competition for our Performance Chemicals products is based on product performance, quality, reliability, service, technical innovation and price. We believe our product differentiation, technological leadership, operations excellence and customer service provide us with a competitive advantage.

Raw Materials

Raw materials for our products are, in general, readily available and in adequate supply. The principal raw material used in the manufacture of carbon blackour specialty carbons and conductive additives is a portioncomposed of the residual heavy oils derived from petroleum refining operations, the distillation of coal tars, and the production of ethylene throughout the world. Natural gas is also used in the production of carbon black. Theseour specialty carbons. As product purity is one of the most critical requirements for conductive carbons, we obtain raw materials for those products from select key suppliers. Our raw material costs generally are influenced by the availability of various types of carbon black feedstockour feedstocks and natural gas, supply and demand of such raw materials and related transportation costs. Importantly, movementsChanges in certain of our raw material supplier’s operating conditions could reduce the market price for crude oil typically affect carbon black feedstock costs. availability of certain very specialized feedstocks.

The primary raw materials used for our specialty compounds include carbon black, primarily sourced from our carbon black plants, thermoplastic resinsnanotubes are catalysts that we synthesize and mineral fillers supplied from various sources. Raw materials for inkjet colorants include carbon black sourced from our carbon black plants, organic pigments and other treating agents available from various sources. Raw materials for inkjet inks include pigment dispersions, solvents and other additives.

propylene. Raw materials for the production of fumed silica are various chlorosilane feedstocks. We purchase feedstocks and for somecertain customers convert their feedstock to product on a fee-basis (so called “toll conversion”). We also purchase aluminum chloride as feedstock for the production of fumed alumina. We have long-term procurement contracts or arrangements in place for the purchase of fumed silica feedstock primarily from fence-line partners, which we believe will enable us to meet our raw material requirements for the foreseeable future. In addition, we buy some raw materials in the spot market to help ensure flexibility and minimize costs. The principal raw materials for the production of aerogel are silica sol and/or sodium silicate.

OperationsThe primary raw materials used for our specialty compounds include carbon black, primarily sourced from our carbon black plants, prime and recycled thermoplastic resins and mineral fillers supplied from various sources. Raw materials for inkjet colorants include carbon black sourced from our carbon black plants, organic pigments and other treating agents available from various sources. Raw materials for inkjet inks include pigment dispersions, solvents and other additives.

Operations

We own, or have a controlling interest in, and operate plants that produce specialty grades of carbon blackcarbons primarily in China, the Netherlands and the U.S. We produce our conductive additives in China, and at our specialty carbon plants in the U.S. and in the Netherlands. We also own, or have a controlling interest in, manufacturing plants that produce fumed metal oxides in China, Germany, the United Kingdom (“U.K.”), and the U.S. and a manufacturing plant that produces aerogel in Frankfurt, Germany. An equity affiliate operates a fumed metal oxides plant in India. Our specialty compounds are predominately produced in facilities that we own, or have a controlling interest in, located in Belgium, Canada, China and the United Arab Emirates. Our inkjet colorants and inks are manufactured at our facility in Haverhill, Massachusetts. We also own, or have a controlling interest in, manufacturing plants that produce fumed metal oxides in China, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. and a manufacturing plant that produces aerogel in Frankfurt, Germany. An equity affiliate operates a fumed metal oxides plant in India.

The following table shows our ownership interest as of September 30, 20172023 in these segment operations in which we own less than 100%:

In November 2017, we purchased Tech Blend, a leading North American producer of black masterbatches, extending our geographic footprint in black masterbatch and compounds. Tech Blend produces black masterbatches at its manufacturing facility in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec, Canada.

We also continue to expand our fumed silica manufacturing capacity. During fiscal 2016, we entered into an agreement with Inner Mongolia Hengyecheng Silicone Co., Ltd (“HYC”) to build a fumed silica manufacturing facility in Wuhai, China in which we will hold an 80% interest and HYC will hold the remaining 20% interest. Construction of the plant began in June 2017, and we expect the plant to be completed in calendar year 2019. In addition, in fiscal 2017, we entered into an agreement with DowDuPont (“Dow”) to build a fumed silica manufacturing facility in Carrollton, Kentucky adjacent to the existing Dow silicone monomer plant. Construction of the plant began in September 2017, and we expect the plant to be completed in calendar year 2019.

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Purification Solutions

Products

Activated carbon is a porous material consisting mainlyCurrently, four of elemental carbon treated with heat, steam and/or chemicals to create high internal porosity, resulting in a large internal surface area that resembles a sponge. It is generally produced in two forms, powdered and granular, and is manufactured in different sizes, shapes and levels of purity and using a variety of raw materials for a wide variety of applications. Activated carbon is used to remove contaminants from liquids and gases using a process called adsorption, whereby the interconnected pores of activated carbon trap contaminants.

Our activated carbon productsour reinforcing carbons/specialty carbons manufacturing sites have energy centers. These are used for the purification of water, air, food and beverages, pharmaceuticals and other liquids and gases, as either a colorant or a decolorizing agentdescribed above in the manufacture of products for food and beverage applications and as a chemical carrier in slow release applications. In gas and air applications, one of the uses of activated carbon is for the removal of mercury in flue gas streams. In certain applications, used activated carbon can be reactivated for further use by removing the contaminants from the pores of the activated carbon product. The most common applications for our reactivated carbon are water treatment and food and beverage purification. In addition to our activated carbon production and reactivation, we also provide activated carbon solutions through on-site equipment and services, including delivery systems for activated carbon injection in coal-fired utilities, mobile water filter units and carbon reactivation services.

Sales and Customers

Sales of activated carbon are made by Cabot employees and through distributors and sales representatives to a broad range of customers, including coal-fired utilities, food and beverage processors, water treatment plants, pharmaceutical companies and catalyst producers. Somediscussion of our sales of activated carbon are made under annual contracts or longer-term agreements, particularly in mercury removal applications.Reinforcement Materials segment.

Competition

We are one ofOver the leading manufacturers of activated carbon in the world. We compete in the manufacture of activated carbonlast several years, we have been investing for growth with a number of companies, some of which have a global presence and others that have a regional or local presence, although not all of these companies manufacture activated carbon for the range of applications for which we sell our products.

Competition for activated carbon and activated carbon equipment and services is based on quality, price, performance, and supply-chain stability. We believe our product and application diversity, product differentiation, technological leadership, quality, cost-effective access to raw materials, and scalable manufacturing capabilities provide us with a competitive advantage.

Raw Materials

The principal raw materials we use in the manufacture of activated carbon are various forms of coal, including lignite, woodcapacity expansion projects and other carbonaceoustransactions, particularly to increase manufacturing capacity for our specialty carbons and battery materials which are,products. These investments include our purchase in general, readily available and we believe we have2022 from Tokai Carbon Group of its carbon black manufacturing facility in adequate supply. We also own a lignite mine that is operated by Caddo Creek Resources Company, LLC, a subsidiary of the North American Coal Company, which supplies our Marshall, Texas facility.

Operations

We own, or have a controlling interest in, and operate plants that produce activated carbon in Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the U.S. Our affiliates operate activated carbon plants in Canada and Mexico. The following table shows our ownership interest as of September 30, 2017 in activated carbon operations in which we own less than 100%:

Specialty Fluids

Products

Our Specialty Fluids segment produces and markets a range of cesium products that include cesium formate brines and other fine cesium chemicals.

Cesium formate brines are used as a drilling and completion fluid for use primarily in high pressure and high temperature oil and gas well construction. Cesium formate products are solids-free, high-density fluids that have a low viscosity, enabling safe and efficient well construction and workover operations. The fluid is resistant to high temperatures, minimizes damage to producing reservoirs and is readily biodegradable in accordance with the testing guidelines set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In a majority of applications, cesium formate is blended with other formates or products.

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Fine cesium chemicals are used across a wide range of industries and applications that include catalysts, doping agents and brazing fluxes. Fine cesium chemicals enable process performance benefits and yield improvements, and help prevent or mitigate pollution in the applications they serve.

Sales, Rental and Customers

Sales of our cesium formate products are made to oil and gas operating companies directly by Cabot employees and sales representatives and indirectly through oil field service companies. We generally rent cesium formate to our customers for use in drilling operations on a short-term basis and on occasion make direct sales of cesium formate outside of the rental process. After completion of a job under our rental process, the customer returns the remaining fluid to Cabot and it is reprocessed for use in subsequent well operations. Any fluid that is lost during use and not returned to Cabot is paid for by the customer.

A large portion of our fluids has been used for drilling and completion of wells in the North Sea with a limited number of customers,Tianjin, China where we have supplied cesium formate-based fluids for both reservoir drilling and completion activities on large gas and condensate field projects in the Norwegian Continental Shelf. We continue to expand the use of our fluidsmake technical upgrades to drilling operations outside of the North Sea, particularly in Asia and the Middle East.

Sales of our fine cesium chemicals are made by Cabot employees and through distributors and sales representatives.

Competition

Formate fluids compete mainly with traditional drilling fluid technologies. Competition in the well fluids business is based on product performance, quality, reliability, service, technical innovation, price, and proximity of inventoryconvert certain manufacturing units to customers’ drilling operations.allow us to produce conductive additives. We believe our commercial strengths include our unique product offerings and their performance, and our customer service.

We are one of the leading manufacturers of fine cesium chemicals in the world and compete in the manufacture of fine cesium chemicals with multiple companies. We also compete with other technical solutions, which differ by application.

Raw Materials

The principal raw material used in this business is pollucite (cesium ore), of which we own, at our mine in Manitoba, Canada, a substantial portion of the world’s known reserves. In November 2015, we completed a development project at the mine, and in September 2017, we commenced work on an infrastructure improvement and mining project that we expect to complete the conversion of the first unit at the site in lateearly fiscal year 2018.2026. We believeintend to pace our investments in additional battery materials manufacturing capacity to meet demand. Further, in fiscal 2023, we have sufficient raw material toestablished our EMEA Technology Center in Münster, Germany. We expect this will enable us to continue to supply cesium products for the foreseeable future, based onenhance our anticipated consumption. We are assessing options to access additional reservesbattery materials development capability and strengthen our technology collaboration in Europe with other participants in the mine, various technologiesbattery materials industry.

To meet the growing demand in the inkjet market for digital printing applications, in fiscal 2023 we commenced operations at a new production line at our manufacturing plant in Haverhill, Massachusetts, U.S., to augmentincrease our cesium supply and alternative sources of ore asglobal capacity for aqueous pigment dispersions.

In our specialty compounds business, to meet anticipated demand forwe expanded our cesium products warrants.manufacturing capacity with a new specialty compounds unit at our reinforcing carbons plant in Cilegon, Indonesia, which was completed in fiscal 2023.

Most oil and gas well construction jobs for which cesium formate is used require a large volume of the product. Accordingly, the Specialty Fluids business maintains a large supply of fluid.

Operations

Our mine and cesium formate and fine cesium chemical manufacturing facility are located in Manitoba, Canada, and we have fluid blending and reclamation facilities in Aberdeen, Scotland and in Bergen, Norway. In addition, we warehouse fluid and fine cesium chemical products at various locations around the world to support existing and potential operations.

Patents and Trademarks

We own and are a licensee of various patents, which expire at different times, covering many of our products as well as processes and product uses. Although the products made and sold under these patents and licenses are important to Cabot, the loss of any particular patent or license would not materially affect our business, taken as a whole. We sell our products under a variety of trademarks we own and take reasonable measures to protect them. While our trademarks are important to Cabot, the loss of any one of our trademarks would not materially affect our business, taken as a whole.

SeasonalityResearch and Development

Our products are highly versatile and meet specific performance requirements across many industries, creating opportunities for innovation. In fiscal 2023, we spent approximately $57 million on technology development. Our R&D activities included those focused in the areas of conductive additives, inkjet dispersions and engineered elastomer composites. We are also focused on process innovation across our product lines. We are investing in furthering our sustainability efforts across various areas in order to reduce waste, reduce emissions and utilize more sustainable material in our production processes.

Seasonality

Our businesses are generally not seasonal in nature, although we may experience some regional seasonal declines during holiday periodsperiods.

Human Capital Resources

Our success is realized through the engagement and some weather-related seasonality in Purification Solutions.

Backlog

We do not consider backlog to be a significant indicatorcommitment of the level of future sales activity. In general, we do not manufacture our products against a backlog of orders. Production and inventory levels are based on the level of incoming orders as well as projections of future demand. Therefore, wepeople. We believe that backlog information is not materialour globally distributed workforce positions us well to understandingserve our overall businessbroad customer base in the regions and is not a reliable indicator of our ability to achieve any particular level of revenue or financial performance.

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Employees

geographies in which they operate. As of September 30, 2017,2023, we had approximately 4,5004,300 employees across our global network of office and manufacturing locations, with 41% of our employees located in the Americas (61% of whom are in the United States), 33% in Asia Pacific (76% of whom are in China), and 26% in Europe, Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”). Of this global employee population, 43% are employed in manufacturing roles.

Our Management Executive Committee (“Executive Committee”) is comprised of our CEO and his nine direct reports who, collectively, have management responsibility for our businesses and regional operations, our financial, legal, safety, health, environment and sustainability, human resources, research and development, global business services and digital functions.

Our primary human capital objectives are to attract, retain and develop the highest quality talent and ensure they feel safe, supported and empowered to do their best work. Accordingly, our management team places significant focus and attention on matters concerning Cabot’s workforce – particularly in the areas of diversity, talent, engagement, retention and development, total rewards, and employee health and safety. These areas of focus are also represented in our 2025 Sustainability Goals, which include:

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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I)

In support of our commitment to foster a diverse and inclusive environment, in fiscal 2023 we established DE&I objectives which were factors that were considered in establishing the funding levels of our short-term incentive awards. These objectives were:

We also conducted our biennial global employee engagement survey, which included five questions related to inclusion. Employees reported strong sentiments of inclusion with scores across all questions either remaining stable or increasing. Additionally, we were pleased to receive external recognition, being named to Newsweek's America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity 2023, based on an independent review of over 350,000 companies.

Demographic information with respect to gender representation among all Cabot employees and with respect to racial and ethnic representation among Cabot employees located in the United States, as of September 30, 2023, is set forth in the tables below:

Gender Diversity

Racial and Ethnic Diversity

* Management includes both people managers, excluding members of the Executive Committee, and senior-level individual contributor roles.

** People of Color consists of U.S. based employees who identify as a race or ethnicity other than white.

Talent Retention and Development

We have numerous initiatives and programs to attract, develop and retain our talent tailored to specific employee populations and geographies, including leadership and executive development programs, technical training, and other skill-based training. In fiscal 2023, we focused on building awareness for managers and employees on the tools and resources available to support employee development. This included senior leader workshops sharing best practices, manager packs to make it easy to share and promote use with their teams, and training for managers, employees and HR. We also expanded our investment and internal promotion of the online learning platform introduced last fiscal year. We continued to see strong engagement and use of this

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platform to support our leadership development programs, DE&I knowledge and skill building, and self-directed learning through our career development portal for employees.

We believe that our continued focus and investment on employee development continues to be well received by our employees. In our biennial global employee engagement survey, employees reported high levels of support for their professional development with an increase in scores on questions related to feedback received from managers and opportunities to learn and grow.

We have well-established performance management and talent development processes in which managers provide regular feedback and coaching to develop employees. Throughout the year, managers and employees engage in annual objective setting, quarterly reviews of goal progress, performance feedback, career development discussions, and a year-end performance evaluation. In addition, we regularly review talent development and succession plans for each of our functions and business segments to identify and develop a pipeline of talent.

Some of our employees in the U.S. and abroad are covered by collective bargaining or similar agreements. We believe that ourhave generally positive and productive employee relations with our employees, are generally satisfactory.unions and works councils globally.

ResearchCabot’s global voluntary turnover rate for fiscal 2023 was approximately 7.3%, which represents a decrease in the Company’s attrition rate relative to fiscal 2022, which was 9.0%.

Total Rewards

We strive to provide a total rewards program that enables us to attract, retain and Development

Cabot develops new and improved products and higher efficiency processes through Company-sponsored research and technical service activities, including those initiated in response to customer requests. In fiscal 2017, we opened a new Asia Technology Center in Shanghai, Chinamotivate the best talent to support our applications development and customer collaboration efforts in the region.businesses. Our expenditurescompensation programs embrace a pay for research and technical service activities generally are spread among our businessesperformance philosophy and are showndesigned to be competitive within the markets in the Consolidated Statements of Operations. Further discussion ofwhich we compete for talent. Our pay practices reward individual and Company performance and are equitably differentiated based on role, experience, contributions, and performance. We value our researchemployees' efforts and technical expenses incurredreward those contributions through our recognition and incentive programs. We regularly assess these practices to ensure we are market competitive in each of our last threegeographic locations, offering what we believe is a compelling and attractive place to work.

Cabot is committed to ensuring that employees are paid fairly, without discrimination while taking into account job-related factors such as responsibilities, location, work experience, education, performance, and contributions. We conduct reviews annually to monitor our pay practices and develop pay actions where appropriate. Our overall findings for this fiscal year (which did not include employees under certain collective bargaining or similar agreements) continue to indicate that we have strong pay parity between females and males globally as well as with under-represented groups in the United States across all pay components (annual base salary, short-term incentives, and long-term incentives) for those in the same job and location.

We also aim to provide highly competitive benefits programs in all the locations where we operate, including meeting or exceeding local regulations and focusing on health and welfare, employee well-being, employee assistance program (EAP), and retirement savings. Examples of benefit programs we offer in the U.S. include a 401(k) plan, expansive health benefits (including medical, dental and/or vision), life and accident insurance, disability coverage, paid time off, tuition reimbursement and other voluntary benefits. We recognize employee needs are changing as they continue to adjust to new work environments, deal with stress and balance home and work life while managing their own health and safety, along with that of their loved ones. We believe that advancing employee health and well-being is important to Cabot’s success, and as a result, in fiscal 2023 we:

Employee Health & Safety

We believe that one of our primary responsibilities as an employer is to provide a safe work environment and promote wellness across the workforce. Our goal is for all employees, contractors, and visitors to return home in the same condition as when they arrived at work that day. As part of our “Drive to Zero” initiative, we have set a long-term goal of achieving zero injuries at our facilities worldwide. We intend to achieve this ambitious objective by following a number of measures, including training employees in hazard recognition, ensuring procedures are established to mitigate risks and equipping supervisory personnel with the tools and skills required to execute our work safely. As part of this effort, members of our leadership team participate in root cause determinations and the results are shared throughout our network of operating facilities. Recognizing that it may take many years appearsto achieve our Drive to Zero goal, we have established a continuous improvement goal for personal safety to achieve a 50% reduction in MD&Aour recordable and severe injury rate from our baseline measurement in Item 7 below.2019 by 2025. For fiscal 2023, our Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) based upon the number of injuries per 200,000 work hours for both employees and contractors was 0.14 and

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our Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR) was 0.05. For comparison, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports for chemical manufacturing an average TRIR of 1.9 and LTIR of 0.6 in calendar year 2022.

We continue to be recognized as an American Chemistry Counsel Responsible Care® company and as part of our commitment to Responsible Care, we remain focused on continuously improving the health and safety of our processes and products. In accordance with this certification, we report our safety performance metrics annually and undergo external audits regularly to evaluate our program, identify gaps, and undertake corrective actions as needed.

Through our global SHE & Sustainability Commitment, which is endorsed by our Executive Committee and adopted by our Board of Directors, we hold ourselves accountable to demonstrate our company values and continuously improve the way we operate. The SHE & Sustainability Commitment defines several important objectives for our continuous improvement in safety, including:

Safety, Health, Environment and Sustainability

In recognition of the importance of safety, health, environment and sustainability matters to Cabot, our Board of Directors has a Safety, Health, Environment, (��SH&E”)and Sustainability Committee. The Committee, which is comprised of independent directors, meets regularly and oversees our safety, health, and environmental performance, process safety, security, product stewardship, community engagement and governmental affairs. In particular, the Committee reviews metrics, audit results, emerging trends, overall performance, risks and opportunity assessments and management processes related to our safety, health, environmental and sustainability program.

Our ongoing operations are subject to extensive federal, state, local, and foreign laws, regulations, rules, and ordinances relating to safety, health, and environmental matters (“SH&E Requirements”). The SH&E Requirements to which our operations are subject include requirements to obtain and comply with various environmental-related permits for constructing any new facilities and operating all of our existing facilities and for product registrations. We have expended and will continue to expend considerable resources to construct, maintain, operate, and improve our facilities throughout the world for safety, health and environmental protection and to comply with SH&E Requirements. We spent $72 million in environmental-related capital expenditures in fiscal 2023. We anticipate spending approximately $74 million for such matters in fiscal 2024, a significant portion of which will continue to be for the installation of air pollution control equipment at our plant in Ville Platte, Louisiana. These costs include costs associated with our compliance with the Consent Decree we entered into in November 2013 with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (“LDEQ”) regarding Cabot’s three carbon black manufacturing facilities in the U.S. This settlement is related to the EPA’s national enforcement initiative focused on the U.S. carbon black manufacturing sector alleging non-compliance with certain regulatory and permitting requirements under The Clean Air Act, including the New Source Review (“NSR”) construction permitting requirements. Pursuant to this settlement, Cabot has installed technology controls for sulfur dioxide and/or nitrogen oxide at its carbon black plants in Pampa, Texas and Franklin, Louisiana, and is in the process of installing such technology controls at its plant in Ville Platte. We are currently in discussions with the EPA and LDEQ to extend our compliance date at the Ville Platte facility to 2024 based upon force majeure events primarily related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect that the total capital costs to install these technology controls will be in the range of $225 million to $250 million and will be incurred through 2024. As of September 30, 2023, we have incurred approximately $180 million to install these controls in the U.S. Operating these controls increases our plant operating costs. All carbon black manufacturers in the U.S. have settled with the EPA and are installing similar controls. In addition, under the Province of Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks’ (“MECP”) Regulation 419, a new requirement for sulfur dioxide (“SO2”) emissions went into effect on July 1, 2023 for our reinforcing carbons plant in Sarnia, Ontario. On June 30, 2023, we received a letter from the MECP indicating that as of July 1, 2023 we would be out of compliance with the new air standards for SO2, and, in response, we submitted our required abatement plan in accordance with Regulation 419. We are continuing discussions with the MECP on a new technical standard for SO2 emissions controls at our plant as an alternative to this requirement, which in its current form would require the installation of air pollution controls at the plant by July 1, 2028. We intend to continue to engage with the MECP on this alternative, or another compliance approach that is acceptable to the MECP. We anticipate that we will need to incur significant capital costs for the installation of these new SO2 emissions controls, particularly during the 24-month period prior to the date of installation.

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As described above, environmental agencies worldwide are increasingly implementing regulations and other requirements resulting in more restrictive air emission limits globally, particularly as they relate to nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter emissions. In addition, growing concerns about climate change have led to global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions with a goal of achieving net zero GHG emissions in the future, which will impact the carbon black industry and our business as carbon dioxide is emitted from those manufacturing processes. Currently, in Europe, our four carbon black facilities are subject to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (“EU ETS”). The fourth phase of the EU ETS began in January 2021, with updated product benchmarks for our carbon black facilities. As a result of revisions to the EU ETS program in late 2022, the free allowances under the program will be phased out over time likely resulting in increased costs to the Company. We are currently evaluating future potential applicability of the new carbon border adjustment mechanism (“CBAM”) program in the EU as an alternative to coverage under the EU ETS. Our carbon black facility in The Netherlands is subject to The Netherlands CO2 tax, which is a top up tax to the EU ETS scheme. In China, a national emissions trading program is currently in place for the power sector and has not yet been expanded beyond that sector. We continue to monitor that program’s further implementation and expect it may apply to the carbon black industry in the future with the existing regional pilot programs expected to continue to operate until the national program becomes effective. In Canada, our carbon black facility has been subject to the Canadian federal carbon tax program. The Ontario Emissions Performance Standard trading system replaced the Canadian federal Output-Based Pricing System for our carbon black facility in Ontario, and specific transition requirements became effective on January 1, 2022. In Mexico, our carbon black facility is participating in the pilot national ETS program, which is expected to be effective by the end of calendar 2023. In other regions where we operate, some of our facilities are required to report their greenhouse gas emissions but are not currently subject to programs requiring trading or emission controls but may be subject to limited carbon tax programs affecting fuels we purchase. We generally expect to pay any incurred taxes or purchase emission credits as needed to respond to any allocation shortfalls and pass these costs on to our customers. In addition, further air emission regulations may be adopted in the future in regions and countries where we operate, which could have an impact on our operations. In addition, further air emission regulations may be adopted in the future in regions and countries where we operate, which could have an impact on our operations. Increasing regulatory programs associated with emissions and concerns regarding climate change are expected to increase our capital and operational costs in the future.

Cabot has been named as a potentially responsible party under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (the “Superfund law”) and comparable state statutes with respect to several sites primarily associated with our divested businesses. (See “Legal Proceedings” below.in Item 3 below, and Note S in Item 8 below, under the heading “Contingencies”.) During the next several years, as remediation of various environmental sites is carried out, we expect to spend against our $12 million environmental reserve for costs associated with such remediation. As of September 30, 2023, our environmental reserve was approximately $5 million. Adjustments are made to the reserve based on our continuing analysis of our share of costs likely to be incurred at each site. Inherent uncertainties exist in these estimates due to unknown conditions at the various sites, changing governmental regulations and legal standards regarding liability, and changing technologies for handling site investigation and remediation. While the reserve represents our best estimate of the costs we expect to incur, the actual costs to investigate and remediate these sites may exceed the amounts accrued in the environmental reserve. While it is always possible that an unusual event may occur with respect to a given site and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations in a particular period, we do not believe that the costs relating to these sites, in the aggregate, are likely to have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial position. Furthermore, it is possible that we may also incur future costs relating to environmental liabilities not currently known to us or as to which it is currently not possible to make an estimate.

Our ongoing operations are subject to extensive federal, state, local, and foreign laws, regulations, rules, and ordinances relating to safety, health, and environmental matters (“SH&E Requirements”). These SH&E Requirements include requirements to obtain and comply with various environmental-related permits for constructing any new facilities and operating all of our existing facilities and for product registrations. We have expended and will continue to expend considerable sums to construct, maintain, operate, and improve facilities for safety, health and environmental protection and to comply with SH&E Requirements. We spent approximately $41 million in environmental-related capital expenditures at existing facilities in fiscal 2017. We anticipate spending approximately $54 million for such matters in fiscal 2018, a significant portion of which will be for the installation of technology controls for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions at certain of our carbon black plants.

In recognition of the importance of compliance with SH&E Requirements to Cabot, our Board of Directors has a Safety, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee. The Committee, which is comprised of a majority of independent directors, meets four times a year and provides oversight and guidance to Cabot’s safety, health and environmental management programs. In particular, the Committee reviews Cabot’s environmental reserve, safety, health and environmental risk assessment and management processes, environmental and safety audit reports, performance metrics, performance as benchmarked against industry peer groups, assessed fines or penalties, site security and safety issues, health and environmental training initiatives, and the SH&E budget. The Committee also consults with our external and internal advisors regarding management of Cabot’s safety, health and environmental programs.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (“IARC”) classifies carbon black as a Group 2B substance (known animal carcinogen, possible human carcinogen). We have communicated IARC’s classification of carbon black to our customers and employees and have included that information in our safety data sheets and elsewhere, as appropriate. We continue to believe that the available evidence, taken as a whole, indicates that carbon black is not carcinogenic to humans, and does not present a health hazard when handled in accordance with good housekeeping and safe workplace practices as described in our safety data sheets.

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REACH (Registration,Our products are subject to the chemical control laws and regulatory requirements of the countries in which they are manufactured or imported and distributed commercially. These laws include the regulation of chemical substances and inventories under the Toxic Substances Control Act (“TSCA”) in the U.S. and the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals),Chemicals (“REACh”) in the European Union (“EU”) regulatory framework for chemicals developed by the European Commission (“EC”), applies to all chemical substances produced or imported into the EU in quantities greater than one metric ton a year.Union. Manufacturers or importers of these chemical substances are required to submit specified health, safety, environment, risk and use information about these substances. Under the substance to“Evaluation” portion of the REACh framework, the European Chemical Agency. We have completed all required registrations under REACHChemicals Agency (ECHA) and European Union Member States assess the information submitted by companies within registration dossiers and testing proposals to datedetermine whether the associated substances are safe for use. The silica substance evaluation was concluded in 2022, and will continuefrom this, a proposal for additional regulatory requirements related to completesilica is expected to be issued. Carbon black is scheduled for a substance review in 2025. Analogous regimes exist in other parts of the registrations under REACH for our products in accordance with future registration deadlines. We will also continue to work withworld, including the manufacturers

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Additional requirements for nanomaterials apply to many of our existing products including carbon black, fumed silica, inkjet pigments, fumed alumina, and fumed alumina.advanced carbons such as carbon nano structures and carbon nanotubes. Country-specific nanomaterial reporting programs have been implemented in some countries and are being developed by others. We will continueIn the European Union, application-specific safety evaluations are ongoing for nanomaterials. Additionally, in 2022, an opinion was adopted to monitorclassify a subset of multi-walled carbon nanotubes that includes a carbon nanotube grade we currently manufacture, as carcinogen category 1B and address these requirements.

Environmental agencies worldwidespecific target organ toxicant (lung) after repeated exposure category 1 under European Union regulations. The opinion has not yet been published in the Adaptation to Technical Progress (ATP), which would make the classification legally binding. Our carbon nanotubes are increasingly implementing regulationsbound in a matrix or contained within conductive materials in batteries, molded parts, plastics, coatings, adhesives, and other requirements resultingsealants, and we do not believe they present a health risk to end users under normal use conditions. Exposure to carbon nanotubes could occur in more restrictive air emission limits globally, particularly as they relate to nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and particulate matter emissions. In addition, global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions impact the carbon black and activated carbon industries as carbon dioxide is emitted from thoseworkplace. However, we believe workplace exposures can be appropriately managed with engineering controls in place at our manufacturing processes. The EU Emission Trading Scheme applies to our carbon black facilities and one activated carbon facility in Europe. In China, twothe use of required personal protective equipment at our carbon black facilities are participating in regional pilot greenhouse gas emissions trading programs associated with the development of a national trading program, which we anticipate will be more fully defined in fiscal 2018. In Canada, our carbon black manufacturing facility is subject to the greenhouse gas emissions trading program that began in calendar year 2017. In other regions where we operate, some of our facilities are required to report their greenhouse gas emissions, but are not currently subject to programs requiring trading or emission controls. We generally expect to purchase emission credits where necessary to respond to allocation shortfalls. In addition, air emission regulations may be adopted in the future in other regions and countries where we operate, which could have an impact on our operations.sites.

A number of organizations and regulatory agencies have become increasingly focused on the issue of water scarcity, water conservation and water quality, particularly in certain geographic regions. We are engaged in various activities to promote water conservation and wastewater recycling.recycling, particularly given that some of our manufacturing processes are water intensive. The costs associated with these activities are not expected to have a material adverse effect on our operations.

Various U.S. agencies and international bodies have adopted security requirements applicable to certain manufacturing and industrial facilities and marine port locations. These security-related requirements involve the preparation of security assessments and security plans in some cases, and in other cases the registration of certain facilities with specified governmental authorities. We closely monitor all security-related regulatory developments and believe we are in compliance with all existing requirements. Compliance with such requirements is not expected to have a material adverse effect on our operations.

Foreign and Domestic OperationsItem 1A. Risk Factors

A significant portion of our revenues and operating profits is derived from overseas operations. The profitability of our segments is affected by fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to foreign currencies. (See MD&A and the Geographic Information portion of Note S for further information relating to sales and long-lived assets by geographic area.) Further, currency fluctuations, nationalization and expropriation of assets are risks inherent in international operations. We have taken steps we deem prudent in our international operations to diversify and otherwise to protect against these risks, including the use of foreign currency financial instruments to reduce the risk associated with changes in the value of certain foreign currencies compared to the U.S. dollar. (See the risk management discussion contained in “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk” in Item 7A below and Note J of our Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements).

In addition to factors described elsewhere in this report, the following are important factors that could adversely affect our business. The risks described below are not the only risks we face. Additional risks not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations and financial results.

Negative or uncertain worldwide or regional economic conditionsIndustry Risks

Industry capacity utilization and competition from other specialty chemical companies may adversely impact our business.

Our operations and performance are affected by worldwide and regional economic conditions. Uncertainty or a deterioration in the economic conditions affecting the businesses to which, or geographic areas in which, we sell products could reduce demand for our products. We may also experience pricing pressure on products and services, which could decrease our revenues and have an adverse effect on our financial condition and cash flows. In addition, during periods of economic uncertainty, our customers may temporarily pursue inventory reduction measures that exceed declines in the actual underlying demand. Our businesses are sensitive to industry capacity utilization, particularly Reinforcement Materials and Purification Solutions. As a result, pricing tends to fluctuate when capacity utilization changes occur, which could affect our financial performance. Further, we operate in a highly competitive marketplace. Our ability to compete successfully depends in part upon our ability to maintain a superior technological capability and to continue to identify, develop and commercialize new and innovative, high value-added products for existing and future customers. Increased competition from existing or newly developed products offered by our competitors or companies whose products offer a similar functionality as our products, particularly those with an improved environmental footprint, and could be substituted for our products, may negatively affect demand for our products. In addition, actions by our competitors could impair our ability to maintain or raise prices, successfully enter new markets or maintain or grow our market position.

10Environmental regulations and restrictions that affect the carbon black industry impose constraints on our operations, and could threaten our competitive position and increase our operating costs, which may adversely impact our business and results of operations.

As a chemical manufacturing company, ourOur ongoing carbon black operations are subject to operational risksextensive federal, state, local and have the potentialforeign laws, regulations, rules and ordinances relating to cause environmental ormatters, many of which provide for substantial monetary fines and civil and criminal sanctions for violations. These include requirements to obtain and comply with various environmental-related and other damagepermits for constructing any new facilities and operating all of our existing facilities, as well as personal injury,settlements with agencies regarding environmental matters and environmental requirements. These environmental regulatory requirements and restrictions impose constraints on our operations, and could threaten our competitive position. We have expended and will continue to expend considerable amounts to construct, maintain, operate, and improve our facilities around the world for environmental protection. In addition, the increased emphasis on environmental justice, which is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all individuals and communities in which we operate, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies, could result in increased compliance requirements and costs. Furthermore, our actual or perceived failure to adhere to these principles could harm our reputation.

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Even without such regulation, increased public awareness and adverse publicity about potential impacts on climate change or environmental harm from us or our industry could harm our reputation or otherwise impact the Company adversely. In recent years, investors have also begun to show increased interest in sustainability and climate change as it relates to their investment decisions. Our failure to develop and execute a sustainability strategy that adequately responds to these environmental concerns could harm our reputation and negatively impact the value of our securities. In addition, new disclosure requirements related to GHG emissions and climate change, including the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, any final rules approved by the SEC, and state laws requiring climate disclosure, may negatively impact our business by diverting resources, increasing our compliance costs and harming our reputation. Further, increasing weather-related impacts on our operations and plant sites may impact the cost or availability of insurance. Furthermore, the potential impact of climate change and related regulation on our feedstock suppliers and customers is highly uncertain and there can be no assurance that it will not have an adverse effect on the availability, over time, of our traditional carbon black feedstocks, our customers’ businesses and sourcing arrangements, and on our financial condition and results of operationsoperations. For instance, lower demand for oil refinery products may reduce the availability and cash flows.

The operationincrease the cost of a chemical manufacturing businesscertain of the key raw materials we use. In addition, many of our tire customers have set sustainability goals for the 2030 to 2050 time period to purchase more sustainable raw materials, including reduced use of fossil-derived materials, which could reduce demand for our traditional carbon black products. We cannot predict how legal, regulatory and social responses to concerns about climate change, as well as the sale and distribution of chemical products are subject to operational as well as safety, healthother sustainability and environmental risks. For example, the production and/or processing of carbon black, specialty compounds, fumed metal oxides, aerogel, activated carbon and other chemicals involve the handling, transportation, manufacture or use of certain substances or components that may be considered toxic or hazardous. Our manufacturing processes and the transportation ofmatters, will impact our chemical products and/or the raw materials used to manufacture our products are subject to risks inherent in chemical manufacturing, including leaks, fires, explosions, toxic releases, mechanical failures or unscheduled downtime. If operational risks materialize, they could result in injury or loss of life, damage to the environment, or damage to property. In addition, the occurrence of material operating problems at our facilities or a disruption in our supply chain or distribution operations may result in loss of production, which, in turn, may make it difficult for us to meet customer needs. Accordingly, these events and their consequences could negatively impact the Company’s results of operations and cash flows, both during and after the period of operational difficulties, and could harm our reputation.business.

A significant adverse change in a customer relationship or the failure of a customer to perform its obligations under agreements with us could harm our business or cash flows.16

Our success in strengthening relationships and growing business with our largest customers and retaining their business over extended time periods is important to our future results. We have a group of key customers across our businesses that together represent a significant portion of our total net sales and operating revenues. The loss of any of our important customers, or a significant reduction in volumes sold to them, could adversely affect our results of operations until such business is replaced or any temporary disruption ends. Further in Reinforcement Materials we enter into supply agreements with a number of key customers, that have a duration of at least one year, which account for approximately half of our total rubber blacks volumes. Our success in negotiating the price and volume terms under these agreements could have a material effect on our results. In addition, any deterioration in the financial condition of any of our customers that impairs our customers’ ability to make payments to us also could increase our uncollectible receivables and could affect our future results and financial condition.

Volatility in the price and availability of raw materials and energy could impact our margins and working capital.capital and our revenues from our energy center operations.

Our manufacturing processes consume significant amounts of energy and raw materials, the costs of which are subject to worldwide supply and demand as well as other factors beyond our control. Dramatic increasesOur carbon black businesses use a variety of feedstocks as raw material including high sulfur fuel oils, low sulfur fuel oils, coal tar distillates, and ethylene cracker residue, the cost and availability of which vary, based in suchpart on geography. Significant movements or volatility in our carbon black feedstock costs could have an adverse effect on our results of operations. For example, movements in the market price for crude oil typically affect carbon black feedstock costs. Significant movements in the market price for crude oil tend to create volatility in our carbon black feedstock costs, which can affect our working capital and results of operations. In addition, regulatory changes or geopolitical conflict may impact the availability and prices of our raw materials. For example, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has disrupted and may continue to disrupt the price and availability of natural gas in Europe.

Certain of our carbon black supply contractsarrangements contain provisions that adjust prices to account for changes in a relevant feedstockand natural gas price index.indices. We also attempt to offset the effects of increases in raw material and energy costs through selling price increases in our non-contract sales, productivity improvements and cost reduction efforts. Success in offsetting increased raw material and energy costs with price increases is largely influenced by competitive and economic conditions and could vary significantly depending on the segment served. Such increases may not be accepted by our customers, may not be sufficient to compensate for increased raw material and energy costs or may decrease demand for our products and our volume of sales. If we are not able to fully offset the effects of increased raw material or energy costs, it could have a significant impact on our financial results. Rapid declines in energy prices and raw material costs can also negatively impact our financial results, as such changes can negatively affect the returnsrevenues we receive onfrom our energy centers and yield improvement investments, and may negatively impact our contract pricing adjustments. In addition, we use a variety of feedstock indices in our supply contractsarrangements to adjust our prices for changes in raw materials costs. Depending on feedstock markets and our choice of feedstocks, the indices we use in our supply contractsarrangements may not precisely track our actual costs. This could result in an incongruity between our contract pricing adjustments and changes in our actual feedstock costs, which can affect our net working capital and our margins. Further, the timing of the implementation of any of these pricing adjustments may not precisely track our actual costs as reflected in our financial statements.

In addition, we obtain certain of our raw materials from selected key suppliers. Although we typically maintain raw material inventory, if any sole source supplier of theseraw materials ceases supplying raw materials to us, or if any of our key suppliers is unable to meet its obligations under supply agreements with us on a timely basis or at an acceptable price, or at all, we may be forced to incur higher costs to obtain the necessary raw materials elsewhere or, in certain limited cases, may not be able to obtain the required raw materials.

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We may not be successful achieving our growth expectations from new products, new applications and technology developments, and money we spend on these efforts may not resultA significant adverse change in a proportional increasecustomer or joint venture relationship or the failure of a customer or joint venture partner to perform its obligations under agreements with us could harm our business or cash flows.

Our success in strengthening relationships and growing business with our largest customers and retaining their business over extended time periods is important to our future results. We have a group of key customers across our businesses that together represent a significant portion of our total net sales and operating revenues. The loss of any of our important customers, or a significant reduction in volumes sold to them, could adversely affect our results of operations until such business is replaced or any temporary disruption ends. Further, in our revenues or profits.

We may not be successful achievingReinforcement Materials segment we enter into supply arrangements with a number of key customers that typically have a duration of one year, which account for approximately two-thirds of our growth expectations from developing new products or product applications. Moreover, we cannot be certain thattotal reinforcing carbons volumes. Our success in negotiating the costs we incur investing in new productprice and technology development will result involume terms under these arrangements could have a proportional increase inmaterial effect on our revenues or profits.results. In addition, a number of our operations are conducted through joint venture arrangements that operate pursuant to long-term contracts, including for the timely commercializationsupply of products that we are developing may be disrupted or delayed by manufacturing or other technical difficulties, market acceptance or insufficient market size to support a new product, competitors’ new products, and difficulties in moving fromraw materials for the experimental stagejoint venture operations. Any dispute as to the production stage. These disruptionsterms of these contractual arrangements or delaysdeterioration in the relationship between us and our joint venture partner could disrupt the operations of the joint venture, which could affect our financial results and harm our reputation. In addition, any deterioration in the financial condition of any of our customers that impairs our customers’ ability to make payments to us also could increase our uncollectible receivables and could affect our future business results.

We face operational risks inherent in mining operations and our mining operations have the potential to cause safety issues, including those that could result in significant personal injury.

We own two mines, a cesium mine in Manitoba, Canada, a portion of which is located under Bernic Lake, and an above-ground lignite mine, which is located close to our Marshall, Texas facility and operated by a subsidiary of The North American Coal Company. Mining operations by their nature are activities that involve a high level of uncertainty and are often affected by risks and hazards outside of our control. At our lignite mine, the risks are primarily operational risks associated with the maintenance and operation of the heavy equipment required to dig and haul the lignite, and risks relating to lower than expected lignite quality or recovery rates. Our underground mine in Manitoba is subject to a number of risks, including industrial accidents, unexpected geological conditions, fall of ground accidents or structural collapses, which, in the case of our cesium mine, could lead to flooding. Following a fall of ground incident in 2013, we implemented additional safety measures and several types of monitoring devices in the mine that have indicated good structural stability in the mine since that time. However, the structural stability may change at any time and there remains a possibility of deterioration and flooding of this mine. The failure to adequately manage these risks could result in significant personal injury, loss of life, damage to mineral properties, production facilities or mining equipment, damage to the environment, delays in or reduced production, and potential legal liabilities.

Any failure to realize benefits from acquisitions, alliances or joint ventures could adversely affect future financial results.

In achieving our strategic plan objectives, we may pursue acquisitions, alliances or joint ventures intended to complement or expand our existing businesses globally or add product technology, or both. The success of acquisitions of businesses, new technologies and products, or arrangements with third parties is not always predictable and we may not be successful in realizing our objectives as anticipated. We may not be able to integrate any acquired businesses successfully into our existing businesses, make such businesses profitable, or realize anticipated cost savings or synergies, if any, from these acquisitions, which could adversely affect our business results.

Plant capacity expansions and site development projects may impact existing plant operations, be delayed and/or not achieve the expected benefits.

Our ability to complete capacity expansions and other site development projects as planned may be delayed or interrupted by the need to obtain environmental and other regulatory approvals, unexpected cost increases, availability of labor and materials, unforeseen hazards such as weather conditions, and other risks customarily associated with construction projects. These risks include the risk that existing plant operations are disrupted, which could make it difficult for us to meet our customer needs. Moreover, the cost of these activities could have a negative impact on the financial performance of the relevant business until capacity utilization at the particular facility is sufficient to absorb the incremental costs associated with the expansion, in the case of capacity expansion projects. In addition, our ability to expand capacity in emerging regions depends in part on economic and political conditions in these regions and, in some cases, on our ability to establish operations, construct additional manufacturing capacity or form strategic business alliances.

An interruption in our operations as a result of fence-line arrangements could disrupt our manufacturing operations and adversely affect our financial results.

At certain of our facilities we have fence-line arrangements with adjacent third party manufacturing operations (“fence-line partners”), who provide raw materials for our manufacturing operations and/or take by-products generated from our operations. Accordingly, any unplanned disruptions or curtailments in a fence-line partner’s production facilities that impacts their ability to supply us with raw materials or to take our manufacturing by-products could disrupt our manufacturing operations or cause us to incur increased operating costs to mitigate such disruption.

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If our assumptions about future sales and profitability of the Purification Solutions segment are incorrect and we do not achieve our growth expectations for this business, we may be required to impair certain assets.

We performed our annual goodwill impairment test of Purification Solutions as of May 31, 2017 and determined that the fair value of the reporting unit exceeded its carrying amount by 13% at that time. Our strategic plan underlying this analysis relies on certain growth assumptions that are primarily dependent on (i) growth in demand for our existing portfolio of activated carbon products and new products developed for environmental and specialty applications, and (ii) stable demand in the mercury removal related portion of the business, which is largely dependent on the amount of coal-based power generation used in the U.S. and the continued regulation of utilities under the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (“MATS”). In April 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) indicated that it intends to review the cost benefit analysis prepared by the EPA in support of MATS to determine if the EPA should reconsider MATS or some part of it. This continues to be under review by the EPA. Any action that the EPA takes related to MATS that decreases demand for our products for mercury removal, and/or our failure to achieve our growth expectations for our other products could have a negative effect on the financial results and the fair value of the Purification Solutions business, and lead to an impairment of certain assets.financial condition.

We are exposed to political or country risk inherent in doing business in some countries.countries, including China.

Sales outside of the U.S. constituted athe majority of our revenues in fiscal 2017.2023. We conduct business in several countries, including China, that have less stable legal systems and financial markets, and potentially more corrupt, or less predictable, business environments than the U.S. As set forth in Note T to our Consolidated Financial Statements, sales in China constituted approximately 25% of our revenues in fiscal 2023 and our property, plant and equipment located in China constituted approximately 25% of our total property, plant and equipment as of September 30, 2023. Our operations outside of the U.S., including in China, expose us to risks related to uncertain enforcement of laws by foreign governments as well as risks that foreign governmental entities will change applicable rules and regulations with minimal advance notice. These risks could result in a material change in our operations, which could negatively impact the value of our securities. Additionally, our operations in some countries, including China, are subject to the following risks: changes in the rate of economic growth; unsettled political or economic conditions; non-renewal of operating

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permits or licenses; possible expropriation or other governmental actions; corruption by government officials and other third parties; social unrest, war, terrorist activities or other armed conflict; confiscatory taxation or other adverse tax policies; deprivation of contract rights; trade regulations affecting production, pricing and marketing of products; reduced protection of intellectual property rights; restrictions on the repatriation of income or capital;additional costs associated with repatriating cash; exchange controls; inflation; currency fluctuations and devaluation; political tension that could result in sanctions being imposed against our customers or suppliers in countries where sanctions have not been imposed in the past; the effect of global health, safety and environmental matters on economic conditions and market opportunities; and changes in financial policy and availability of credit. In addition, there may be costs associated with repatriating income or capital.

TheFor example, the Chinese government has, from time to time, curtailed manufacturing operations, withoutwith little or no notice, in industrial regions out of growing concernconcerns over air quality.quality and in response to COVID-19 outbreaks. The timing and length of these curtailments arehas been difficult to predict and, at times, arewere applied to manufacturing operations without regard to whether the operations being curtailed comply with environmental regulations in the area. Accordingly, although we believe our operations are in compliance with applicable regulations, our manufacturing operations in China have been subject to these curtailments in the past and may be subject to them in the future. In addition, the Chinese government has instituted energy intensity and energy consumption targets in a number of provinces in its efforts to reduce energy consumption, resulting in energy quotas and shortages in energy supply. We are unable to predict how any power outages related to these curtailments.targets will impact our operations. These events could negatively impact the Company’sour results of operations and cash flows both during and after the period of any government-imposed curtailment or power outages affecting our operations. Further, any such curtailments on the Company’s operations.operations at our customers’ facilities could reduce demand for our products and our volumes.

We face competition fromOperational Risks

As a chemical manufacturing company, our operations are subject to operational risks and have the potential to cause environmental or other specialty chemical companies.

We operate in a highly competitive marketplace. Our ability to compete successfully depends in part upondamage as well as personal injury, or disrupt our ability to maintain a superior technological capability and to continue to identify, develop and commercialize new and innovative, high value-added products for existing and future customers. Increased competition from existing or newly developed products offered bysupply our competitors or companies whose products offer a similar functionality as our products and could be substituted for our products, may negatively affect demand for our products. In addition, actions by our competitors could affect our ability to maintain or raise prices, successfully enter new markets or maintain or grow our market position.

Litigation or legal proceedings could expose us to significant liabilities and thus negatively affect our financial results.

As more fully described in “Legal Proceedings” in Item 3 below, we are a party to or the subjectcustomers, any of lawsuits, claims, and proceedings, including, but not limited to, those involving environmental, and health and safety matters as well as product liability and personal injury claims relating to asbestosis, silicosis, and coal worker’s pneumoconiosis. We are also a potentially responsible party in various environmental proceedings and remediation matters wherein substantial amounts are at issue. Adverse rulings, judgments or settlements in pending or future litigation (including liabilities associated with respirator claims) or in connection with environmental remediation activitieswhich could adversely affect our financialbusiness, results or cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in any forward-looking statements.of operations and cash flows.

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Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange and interest rates affect our financial results.

We earn revenues, pay expenses, own assets and incur liabilities in countries using currencies other than the U.S. dollar. In fiscal 2017, we derivedTheoperation of a majority of our revenues from sales outside the U.S. Because our consolidated financial statements are presented in U.S. dollars, we must translate revenues and expenses,chemical manufacturing business as well as assetsthe sale and liabilities,distribution of chemical products are subject to operational as well as safety, health and environmental risks. For example, the production and/or processing of carbon black, specialty compounds, fumed metal oxides, aerogel, carbon nanotubes and other chemicals involve the handling, transportation, manufacture or use of certain substances or components that may be considered toxic or hazardous. While we take precautions to handle and transport these materials in a safe manner, if they are mishandled or released into U.S. dollarsthe environment, they could cause property damage or result in personal injury claims against us.

Our manufacturing processes and the transportation of our chemical products and/or the raw materials used to manufacture our products are subject to risks inherent in chemical manufacturing, including leaks, fires, explosions, toxic releases, severe weather, mechanical failures or unscheduled downtime. In addition, the occurrence of material operating problems at exchange ratesour facilities, particularly at a facility that is the sole source of a particular product we manufacture, or a disruption in effectour supply chain or distribution operations may result in loss of production, which, in turn, may make it difficult for us to meet customer needs. For example, in recent years we have experienced unplanned plant outages at our plants in Franklin, Louisiana and Altamira, Mexico that caused reduced volumes and earnings during the period the plant was down and increased our fixed costs. Other disruptions in supply chains and distribution channels, including those caused by global or at the end of each reporting period. Therefore, increasesregional logistics delays and constraints, such as rail or decreases in the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies in countries where we operate will affecttransportation interruptions, could disrupt our business operations. These events and their consequences could negatively impact our results of operations and cash flows, both during and after the valueperiod of balance sheet items denominatedoperational difficulties, and could harm our reputation.

An interruption in foreign currencies. Due to the geographic diversityour operations as a result of fence-line arrangements or a joint venture partner's actions could disrupt our manufacturing operations and adversely affect our financial results.

At certain of our fumed metal oxides facilities we have fence-line arrangements (many of which are closed-loop) with adjacent third-party manufacturing operations weaknesses(“fence-line partners”), who provide raw materials for our manufacturing operations and/or take by-products generated from our operations. Accordingly, any disruptions or curtailments in some currencies might be offset by strengthsa fence-line partner’s production facilities that impacts their ability to supply us with raw materials or to take our manufacturing by-products could disrupt our manufacturing operations or cause us to incur increased operating costs to mitigate such disruption. We have experienced disruptions in others over time.the supply of raw materials from certain of our fence-line partners in recent years, which have caused us to curtail our operations or incur higher operating costs. In addition, we are exposedoperate certain of our carbon black facilities through joint venture arrangements, pursuant to adverse changes in interest rates. We manage both these risks through normal operating and financing activities and, when deemed appropriate, throughwhich our joint venture partners provide feedstock and/or take by-products generated from our operations. A dispute with a joint venture partner concerning the useterms of derivative instruments as well as foreign currency debt. We cannot be certain, however, that we will be successful in reducing the risks inherent in exposures to foreign currency and interest rate fluctuations.

Further, we have exposure to foreign currency movements because certain foreign currency transactions need to be converted to a different currency for settlement. These conversions can have a direct impact on our cash flows.

Our tax rate is dependent upon a number of factors, a change in any of whichthose arrangements could impact our future tax ratesjoint venture operations and net income.

Our future tax rates may be adversely affected by a number of factors, including: future changes in the jurisdictions in whichcould decrease our profits are determined to be earned and taxed; changes in the estimated realization of our net deferred tax assets; the repatriation of non-U.S. earnings for which we have not previously provided for U.S. income and non-U.S. withholding taxes; adjustments to estimated taxes upon finalization of various tax returns; increases in expenses that are not deductible for tax purposes, including charges from impairment of goodwill in connection with acquisitions; changes in available tax credits; the resolution of issues arising from tax audits with various tax authorities; and changes in tax laws or the interpretation of such tax laws. Losses for which no tax benefits can be recordedoperations. Significant events at neighboring industrial facilities, such as environmental releases, could materially impact our tax rate and its volatility from one quarter to another.

Information technology systems failures, data security breaches or network disruptions could compromise our information,also disrupt our operations and expose us to liability, which may adversely impact our operations.

In the ordinary course of our business, we store sensitive data, including intellectual property, our proprietary business information and certain information of our customers, suppliers, business partners, and employees in our information technology systems. The secure processing, maintenance and transmission of this data is critical to our operations. Information technology systems failures, including risks associated with upgrading our systems or in successfully integrating information technology and other systems in connection with the integration of businesses we acquire, network disruptions or unauthorized access could disrupt our operations by impeding our processing of transactions and our financial reporting, and our ability to protect our customer or company information, which could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations. In addition, as with all enterprise information systems, our information technology systems could be penetrated by outside parties intent on extracting information, corrupting information, or disrupting business processes. Breaches of our security measures or the accidental loss, inadvertent disclosure, or unapproved dissemination of proprietary information or sensitive or confidential information about the Company, our employees, our vendors, or our customers, could result in legal claims or proceedingsnegative publicity about us and potential liability for us, damage to our reputation, and could otherwise harm our business and our results of operations.reputation.

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Our operationsproducts are subject to extensive safety, health and environmental requirements, which could increaseimpair our costs and/ability to manufacture and sell certain products.

In order to secure and maintain the right to produce or reduce our profit.

Our ongoing operations are subject to extensive federal, state, local and foreign laws, regulations, rules and ordinances relating to safety, health and environmental matters, many of which provide for substantial monetary fines and criminal sanctions for violations. These include requirements to obtain and comply with various environmental-related permits for constructing any new facilities and operating all of our existing facilities. In addition, in certain geographic areas, our carbon black and activated carbon facilities are subject to greenhouse gas emission trading schemes under which we may be required to purchase emission credits if our emission levels exceed our allocations. The enactment of new environmental laws and regulations and/or the more aggressive interpretation of existing requirements could require us to incur significant costs for compliance or capital improvements or limit our current or planned operations, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our earnings or cash flow. We attempt to offset the effects of these compliance costs through price increases, productivity improvements and cost reduction efforts. Success in offsetting any such increased regulatory costs is largely influenced by competitive and economic conditions and could vary significantly depending on the segment served. Such increases may not be accepted by our customers, may not be sufficient to compensate for increased regulatory costs or may decrease demand forsell our products, we must satisfy product related regulatory requirements in different jurisdictions. Obtaining and our volumemaintaining these approvals requires a significant amount of sales. (See “Legal Proceedings” in Item 3 below).product testing and data, and there is no certainty these approvals will be obtained.

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Certain national and international health organizations have classified carbon black as a possible or suspected human carcinogen. To the extent that, in the future, (i) these organizations re-classify carbon black as a known or confirmed carcinogen, (ii) other organizations or government authorities in other jurisdictions classify carbon black or any of our other finished products, raw materials or intermediates as suspected or known carcinogens or otherwise hazardous, or (iii) there is discovery of adverse health effects attributable to production or use of carbon black or any of our other finished products, raw materials or intermediates, we could be required to incur significantly higher costs to comply with environmental, health and safety laws, or to comply with restrictions on sales of our products, be subject to legal claims, and our reputation and business could be adversely affected. Further, a subset of multi-walled carbon nanotubes that includes a carbon nanotube grade we currently manufacture have been classified as carcinogen category 1B and specific target organ toxicant (lung) after repeated exposure category 1 under European Union regulations. Although our carbon nanotubes are bound in a matrix or contained within conductive materials, exposure to carbon nanotubes could occur in the workplace. We could be required to incur additional costs to comply with requirements for the safe manufacturing and handling of these materials and we could be subject to legal claims associated with our products. In addition, chemicals that are currently classified as non-hazardous may be classified as hazardous in the future, and our products may have characteristics that are not recognized today but may be found in the future to impair human health or to be carcinogenic.

Information technology systems failures, data security breaches, cybersecurity attacks or network disruptions have harmed us in the past and could compromise our information, disrupt our operations and expose us to liability, which may adversely impact our operations.

We rely on information technology, some of which is managed by third parties, to manage the day-to-day operations and activities of our business, operate elements of our manufacturing facilities, manage our customer and vendor transactions, and maintain our financial, accounting and business records. In addition, we collect and store certain data, including proprietary business information, and may have access to confidential or personal information that is subject to privacy and security laws and regulations.

The eliminationsecure processing, maintenance and transmission of tariffs placed on U.S. importsthis data is critical to our operations and business strategy. Information technology systems failures, including those associated with our managed service provider or related to maintaining or upgrading our systems or integrating information technology and other systems in connection with the integration of Chinese activated carbon,businesses we acquire, or their failurenetwork disruptions could disrupt our operations by impeding our processing of transactions and our financial reporting, and our operations, including by contributing to adequately address the impacta process safety event, any of low-priced imports from China,which could have a material adverse effect on our Purification Solutions segment.business or results of operations. In the past, our networks have been subject to an attack, potentially by suspected foreign nation-state attackers, who conducted reconnaissance and deployed malware. While our systems were able to isolate and expel the attacker before we believe material harm was caused, criminals, rogue insiders, nation-state, and other attackers may continue to attack our network, and our defenses may be unable to succeed in detecting their actions or stop them from inflicting potentially material harms including by theft, destruction, misuse, or corruption of our data or systems or those of other entities whose systems may interconnect with ours.

Purification Solutions faces competitionIn addition, our information technology systems could be compromised by outside parties intent on extracting information, corrupting information or disrupting business processes. Despite our security design and controls, and those of our third-party providers, we may be vulnerable to cyber-attacks, computer viruses, security breaches, inadvertent or intentional employee actions, system failures and other risks that could potentially lead to the compromising of sensitive, confidential or personal data, improper use of our, or our third-party provider systems, solutions or networks, unauthorized access, use, disclosure, modification or destruction of information, or operational disruptions. We face increased information technology security and fraud risks due to our increased reliance on working remotely, which may create additional information security vulnerabilities and/or magnify the impact of any disruption in information technology systems. Additionally, we have in the U.S.past and may in the future be exposed to unauthorized access to our information technology systems through undetected vulnerabilities in our or our service providers’ information systems or software. With the evolving nature of cybersecurity threats, the scope and impact of any information security incident cannot be predicted. In addition, more than a dozen states in the United States have also passed comprehensive data protection legislation, and the global regulatory environment pertaining to information security and privacy is increasingly demanding, with new and changing requirements, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, The Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, and Brazil’s Lei Geral de Protecao de Dados. Complying with these

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laws and regulations may be more costly or take longer than we anticipate, and any failure to comply could result in fines or penalties.

Breaches of our security measures, cyber incidents and disruptions, or the accidental loss, inadvertent disclosure, or unapproved dissemination of proprietary information or sensitive or confidential information about the Company, our employees, our vendors, or our customers, or failure to comply with laws and regulations related to information security or privacy, could result in legal claims or proceedings against us by governmental entities or individuals, significant fines, penalties and judgments, disruption of our operations, remediation requirements, changes to our business practices, and damage to our reputation, and could otherwise harm our business and our results of operations.

Natural disasters and severe weather events could affect our operations and financial results.

We operate facilities in areas of the world that are exposed to natural hazards, such as floods, windstorms, hurricanes, and earthquakes. In addition, extreme weather events and changing weather patterns present physical risks on existing infrastructure that may become more frequent or more severe as a result of factors related to climate change. Such events could disrupt our supply of raw materials or otherwise affect production, transportation and delivery of our products or affect demand for our products and otherwise harm our business and our results of operations, potentially in material ways that may exceed available insurance coverage in the particular circumstances.

We have experienced recent disruptions of the type described above. For example, the severe flooding that occurred in Western Europe in July 2021 caused significant damage to our specialty compounds plant in Pepinster, Belgium. That disruption resulted in a near-term reduction in earnings from low-priced imports of activated carbon products. Iflower volumes and certain increases in our operating costs.

Financial and Other Risks

Negative or uncertain worldwide or regional economic conditions or trade relations, as well as regional conflicts, may adversely impact our business.

Our operations and performance are affected by worldwide and regional economic conditions. Uncertainty or a deterioration in the amounts of these low-priced imports increase, especially if they are sold at less than fair value, our sales of competingeconomic conditions affecting the businesses to which, or geographic areas in which, we sell products could decline,reduce demand for our products and inflationary pressures may increase our costs. We may also experience pricing pressure on products and services, or be unsuccessful in passing along to our customers an increase in our raw materials costs or energy prices, which could have an adverse effect on the earnings of Purification Solutions. In addition, sales of these low-priced imports may negatively impactdecrease our pricing. To limit these activities, regulators in the U.S. have enacted an antidumping duty order on steam activated carbon products from China. A proceeding that will evaluate whether to extend the order for an additional five years will be initiated in February 2018. The amount of antidumping duties collected on imports of steam activated carbon from China is reviewed annually by the U.S. Department of Commerce. To the extent the antidumping margins do not adequately address the degree to which imports are unfairly traded, the antidumping order may be less effective in reducing the volume of these low-priced activated carbon imports in the U.S., which could negatively affect demand and/or pricing for our products. In addition, if the antidumping order is not extended beyond its current term, the amount of low-priced imports from China may increase, which couldrevenues and have an adverse effect on our Purification Solutionsfinancial condition and cash flows. In addition, during periods of economic uncertainty, our customers may temporarily pursue inventory reduction (“destocking”) measures that exceed declines in the actual underlying demand. Given our position in the value chains for our principal products, we typically experience greater destocking impacts in our results of operations early in a recessionary cycle.

Regional conflicts may also adversely impact our business. While we do not have manufacturing operations in Russia or Ukraine, and we do not have material sales in Ukraine and have stopped sales into Russia, Russia’s continuing invasion of Ukraine is negatively impacting economic conditions in Europe. This could reduce demand for our products in our EMEA region, and negatively impact our and our customers’ ability to operate plants in Europe, and harm our suppliers and otherwise increase our operating costs.

In addition, changes in, or tensions relating to, U.S. trade relations with countries where we do business may adversely impact our business. For example, tensions in the U.S.-China trade relationship have led to an increased risk of sanctions being imposed against our suppliers and customers in China which, if imposed, could restrict our ability to do business with such companies. In addition, we may encounter unexpected operating difficulties in China, more restrictive investment opportunities in China, greater difficulty transferring funds, more restrictive travel in and out of China, or negative currency impacts. Further, the cost of our capital projects may be higher than anticipated because of trade tariffs. In addition, escalating tensions in the U.S.-China trade relationship and/or restrictive policies by either country could require us to duplicate the technology resources and capabilities we have in China, particularly those related to our battery materials product line, in a geography outside China, thereby increasing our costs.

Litigation or legal proceedings could expose us to significant liabilities and thus negatively affect our financial results.

As more fully described in Note S in Item 8 below under the heading “Contingencies”, we are a party to or the subject of lawsuits, claims, and proceedings, including, but not limited to, those involving environmental, and health and safety matters as well as product liability and personal injury claims relating to asbestosis, silicosis, and coal worker’s pneumoconiosis. We are also a potentially responsible party in various environmental proceedings and remediation matters wherein substantial amounts are at issue. Adverse rulings, judgments or settlements in pending or future litigation (including liabilities associated with respirator claims) or in connection with environmental remediation activities could adversely affect our financial results or cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in any forward-looking statements.

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Our tax rate and other tax obligations are dependent upon a number of factors, a change in any of which could impact our future tax rates and financial results.

Our future tax rates may be adversely affected by a number of factors, including: changes in the jurisdictions in which our profits are determined to be earned and taxed; changes in the estimated realization of our net deferred tax assets; the repatriation of non-U.S. earnings for which we have not previously provided for non-U.S. withholding taxes; adjustments to estimated taxes upon finalization of various tax returns; increases in expenses that are not deductible for tax purposes; changes in available tax credits; the resolution of issues arising from tax audits with various tax authorities; and changes in tax laws or the interpretation of such tax laws. In addition, losses for which no tax benefits can be recorded could materially impact our tax rate and its volatility from one quarter to another.

Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange and interest rates affect our financial results.

We earn revenues, pay expenses, own assets and incur liabilities in countries using currencies other than the U.S. dollar. In fiscal 2023, we derived a majority of our revenues from sales outside the U.S. Because our consolidated financial statements are presented in U.S. dollars, we must translate revenues and expenses, as well as assets and liabilities, into U.S. dollars at exchange rates in effect during or at the end of each reporting period. Therefore, increases or decreases in the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies in countries where we operate will affect our results of operations and the value of balance sheet items denominated in foreign currencies. For example, in fiscal 2023, we recorded foreign exchange losses related to the remeasurement of our net monetary assets denominated in Argentine pesos, as the official Argentine exchange rate weakened compared to the U.S. dollar throughout the year. In addition, we may have foreign currency losses from government-controlled currency devaluations, such as the foreign currency losses we recorded in fiscal 2023 related to the impact of the sharp devaluation of the Argentine peso that was guided by the Argentine central bank. Due to the geographic diversity of our operations, weaknesses in some currencies might be offset by strengths in others over time. In addition, we are exposed to adverse changes in interest rates. We use a combination of commercial paper and borrowings under our Credit Agreements to meet our short-term cash needs, with borrowings intra-quarter that may be higher than at quarter-end. As this debt is at variable interest rates, the higher interest rate environment as compared to recent years increases our borrowing costs. We manage both these risks through normal operating and financing activities and, when deemed appropriate, through the use of derivative instruments as well as foreign currency debt. We cannot be certain, however, that we will be successful in reducing the risks inherent in exposures to foreign currency and interest rate fluctuations.

Any future outbreak of a widespread health epidemic could materially and adversely impact our business in the future.

Our global operations expose us to risks associated with public health crises and outbreaks of epidemics, pandemics, or contagious diseases, such as the outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus beginning in December 2019 (“COVID-19”). A global health crisis could have a serious adverse impact on the economy and on our business, results of operations and cash flows as the COVID-19 pandemic and associated containment efforts did in fiscal 2020. Specifically, a pandemic or future global health crisis may disrupt operations at our customers and reduce demand for our products, require or cause us to cease operations or idle production lines at our facilities, could materially affect our ability to adequately staff and maintain our operations, including in the event government authorities impose mandatory closures, such as those imposed in China as part of that country’s “Zero COVID” policy, work-from-home orders and social distancing protocols, and seek voluntary facility closures and impose other restrictions to mitigate the further spread of disease. A global health crisis could also disrupt our supply chain and materially and adversely impact our ability to secure supplies for our facilities and to provide personal protective equipment for our employees, which could materially and adversely affect our operations. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic has also contributed to increased costs and decreased availability of labor and materials for construction projects, and these factors have increased the costs of our capital improvement projects and delayed our completion of such projects. Factors that will influence the impact on our business and operations include the duration and extent of the pandemic, the extent of imposed or recommended containment and mitigation measures and their impact on our operations and the operations of our customers, and the general economic consequences of the pandemic.

We have entered into a number of derivative contracts with financial counterparties. The effectiveness of these contracts is dependent on the ability of these financial counterparties to perform their obligations and their nonperformance could harm our financial condition.

We have entered into forward foreign currency contracts and cross-currency swaps as part of our financial risk management strategy. The effectiveness of our risk management program using these instruments is dependent, in part, upon the counterparties to these contracts honoring their financial obligations. If any of our counterparties are unable to perform their obligations in the future, we could be exposed to increased earnings and cash flow volatility due to an instrument’s failure to hedge or adequately address a financial risk.

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Technology Risks

We may not be successful achieving our growth expectations from new products, new applications and technology developments, and money we spend on these efforts may not result in an increase in revenues or profits commensurate with our investment.

We may not be successful achieving our growth expectations from developing new products or product applications. Moreover, we cannot be certain that the costs we incur investing in new product and technology development will result in an increase in revenues or profits commensurate with our investment or within the time period we expect. For example, our investments to further develop our E2C® solutions, inkjet dispersions and inks, and battery materials applications may not result in the earnings growth expectations on which these investments are being made, or we may not realize such growth in line with our expectations when we made such investments. Similarly, we cannot be certain that the investments we are making in our EVOLVE® Sustainable Solutions technology platform to develop products for our customers using sustainable reinforcing carbons from renewable or recycled materials or using processes that result in lower GHG emissions will be successful, including within the time period our customers expect. In addition, the timely commercialization of products that we are developing may be disrupted or delayed by manufacturing or other technical difficulties, market acceptance or insufficient market size to support a new product, competitors’ new products, and difficulties in moving from the experimental stage to the production stage. These disruptions or delays could affect our future business results.

The continued protection of our patents, trade secrets and other proprietary intellectual property rights areis important to our success.

Our patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights are important to our success and competitive position. We own various patents and other intellectual property rights in the U.S. and other countries covering many of our products, as well as processes and product uses. Where we believe patent protection is not appropriate or obtainable, we rely on trade secret laws and practices to protect our proprietary technology and processes, such as physical security, limited dissemination and access and confidentiality agreements with our employees, customers, consultants, business partners, potential licensees and others to protect our trade secrets and other proprietary information. However, trade secrets can be difficult to protect and the protective measures we have put in place may not prevent disclosure or unauthorized use of our proprietary information or provide an adequate remedy in the event of misappropriation or other violations of our proprietary rights. In addition, we are a licensee of various patents and intellectual property rights belonging to others in the U.S. and other countries. Because the laws and enforcement mechanisms of some countries may not allow us to protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as we are able to do in the U.S., the strength of our intellectual property rights will vary from country to country.

Irrespective of our proprietary intellectual property rights, we may be subject to claims that our products, processes or product uses infringe the intellectual property rights of others. These claims, even if they are without merit, could be expensive and time consuming to defend and if we were to lose such claims, we could be enjoined from selling our products or using our processes and/or be subject to damages, or be required to enter into licensing agreements requiring royalty payments and/or use restrictions. Licensing agreements may not be available to us, or if available, may not be available on acceptable terms.

Natural disastersPortfolio Management, Capacity Expansion and Integration Risks

Any failure to realize benefits from acquisitions, alliances or joint ventures or to achieve our portfolio management objectives could adversely affect future financial results.

In achieving our strategic plan objectives, we may pursue acquisitions, alliances or joint ventures intended to complement or expand our existing businesses globally or add product technology, or both. The success of acquisitions of businesses, new technologies and products, or arrangements with third parties is not always predictable and we may not be successful in realizing our objectives as anticipated. We may not be able to integrate any acquired businesses successfully into our existing businesses, make such businesses profitable, or realize anticipated cost savings or synergies, if any, from these acquisitions, which could adversely affect our business results. In addition to strategic acquisitions, we evaluate our portfolio in light of our objectives and alignment with our growth strategy. In implementing this strategy, we may not be successful in separating non-strategic assets. The gains or losses on the divestiture of, or lost operating income from, such assets may affect our earnings. Moreover, we have in the past, and may again in the future, incur asset impairment charges related to acquisitions or divestitures that reduce earnings. As described in Note D in Item 8 below under the heading “Divestitures”, we recorded an asset impairment charge and a loss on sale of business in fiscal 2022 in connection with the disposition of our Purification Solutions business.

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Plant capacity expansions and site development projects may impact existing plant operations, be delayed and/or not achieve the expected benefits.

Our ability to complete capacity expansions and financial results.

We operate facilities in areassite development projects, including capacity conversions from reinforcing carbons to specialty carbons and other site development projects, as planned may be delayed or interrupted by the need to obtain environmental and other regulatory approvals, unexpected cost increases, availability of the world that are exposed to naturallabor and materials, unforeseen hazards such as floods, windstorms, hurricanes,weather conditions, and earthquakes. Such eventsother risks customarily associated with construction projects. These risks include the risk that existing plant operations are disrupted as well as the risk associated with delays in the start-up of operations using new technologies, which disruptions could disruptmake it difficult for us to meet our supplycustomer needs. Moreover, in the case of raw materialscapacity expansions, the cost of these activities could have a negative impact on the financial performance of the relevant business until capacity utilization at the particular facility is sufficient to absorb the incremental costs associated with an expansion. In addition, our ability to expand capacity in emerging regions depends in part on economic and political conditions in these regions and, in some cases, on our ability to establish operations, construct additional manufacturing capacity or otherwise affect production, transportation and delivery of our products or affect demand for our products.form strategic business alliances.

15Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 2. Properties

Cabot’s corporate headquarters are in leased office space in Boston, Massachusetts. We also own or lease office, manufacturing, storage, distribution, marketing and research and development facilities in the U.S. and in foreign countries. The locations of our principal manufacturing and/or administrative facilities are set forth in the table below. Unless otherwise indicated, all the properties are owned.

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Comparative Stock Performance

The graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return on Cabot common stock for the five-year period ended September 30, 2023 with the S&P 400 Chemical Index and the S&P Midcap 400 Index. The comparisons assume the investment of $100 on October 1, 2018 in Cabot’s common stock and in each of the outstanding commonindices and the reinvestment of all dividends.

We have historically included the S&P 500 Chemical Index as a point of reference in our Comparative Stock Performance chart; however, we have made the decision to remove the S&P 500 Chemical Index from this chart beginning with our next Annual Report on Form 10-K. The decision to remove the S&P 500 Chemical Index was based on our belief that the S&P 500 Chemical Index is no longer the most relevant benchmark for assessing our stock performance due to Cabot's smaller size relative to the companies in that index.

We are adding the S&P 400 Chemical Index, which we believe provides a more representative index based on our market capitalization.

The stock price performance on the graph below is not necessarily indicative of future price performance.

The information included under the heading comparative stock performance in Item 5 shall not be deemed to be “soliciting material” or subject to Regulation 14A, shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the joint venture. PriorExchange Act, or otherwise be subject to this transaction, the Company owned approximately 40%liabilities of the outstanding common stock of NHUMO, and the NHUMO entity was accounted for as an equity affiliate of the Company. The results of fiscal 2014that section, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference in the table below include 11 months of results at 100% consolidation and one month of results accounted forany filing under the equity method at 40%.Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act.

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results for fiscal 2013 are reported under the equity method at 40%.of Operations

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The Company completed the sale of its Security Materials business on July 31, 2014. The results of operations for this business for all periods presented are reflected as discontinued operations in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.