Specialty chemicals maker Cabot Corp. has settled a class action price-fixing lawsuit for $10 million. The carbon black maker denied wrongdoing of any kind in the suit that alleged it and other carbon black producers had conspired to fix prices. Cabot officials said it agreed to the settlement to avoid further expense, inconvenience, risk and the distraction of protracted litigation.

Cabot also announced it would close its carbon black plant in Waverly, West Virginia due to a slowdown in North American tire manufacturing operations. In a company statement, Cabot said, “These changes, together with the projected growth of imported tires to the U.S., require Cabot to make this North American carbon black capacity adjustment in order to maintain its competitiveness. Cabot is in the process of debottlenecking several of its carbon black manufacturing facilities in North America to continue to fully meet customer requirements.”

Cabot expects operations at its Waverly facility to cease in March 2008, with customer shipments from the facility continuing through the middle of 2008.