Arq Announces First Supply Contract for its Strategic Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) Facility

Achieved critical strategic milestone with the execution of its first supply contract for Granular Activated Carbon ("GAC") product with a new customer

Agreement reflects 5 million pounds/year of GAC with delivery commencing in Q1 2025; Arq’s Red River GAC plant is on target to complete commissioning in Q4 2024

Encouraging ongoing discussions with additional potential customers for further GAC contracts; Arq expects additional near-term announcements

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo., May 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arq, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARQ) (the "Company" or "Arq"), a producer of activated carbon and other environmentally efficient carbon products for use in purification and sustainable materials, today announced the execution of its first sales contract for delivery of GAC produced from its unique purified bituminous coal waste derived feedstock at its strategic Red River facility.

Under the terms of the agreement, the new Arq customer, a North American solutions provider of water and wastewater treatment and PFAS capture technologies, will purchase a forecasted 5 million pounds of GAC product in 2025, reflecting approximately 20% of the facility's initial expanded nameplate capacity of 25 million pounds per year.

Bob Rasmus, CEO of Arq commented, "Today's announcement reflects a critical milestone in the ongoing strategic transformation of Arq. Our first GAC supply contract represents third party validation of our strategy and our GAC solutions. The contract demonstrates follow through on our commitment to stakeholders and the hard work of our entire team. The contract pricing is attractive, and represents a multiple of our average PAC pricing. This amplifies our confidence in our strategy while further de-risking the strategic development of Red River. We now have approximately 20% of our nameplate Red River capacity now contracted nearly 9 months ahead of commissioning. We remain in advanced levels of dialogue with a range of potential counterparties. Based on those discussions, we remain in an enviable and exciting position to contract the remainder of our capacity prior to initiation of production at attractive rates."

Garrett Chandler, VP Sales of Arq added, "Securing this strategic partner as our first GAC customer is an exciting development as we aim to deliver successfully into a pipeline of sales growth. Our sales team has done an impressive job in helping to achieve today's milestone, and we are even more confident in our ability to contract the remaining capacity for our new GAC products ahead of final commissioning in Q4 2024. The EPA's recent announcement regarding definitive PFAS regulations only amplifies the importance of GAC products in the water market, and the significant higher demand we expect for our solutions over the near and long-term."

Joe Wong, CTO of Arq concluded, "This contract win is a significant step forward for us within the industry. We are well recognized and respected as leaders in the PAC market, and today's achievement further evidences the successful expansion of our product development and manufacturing prowess in execution of Arq's strategic transformation to an environmental technology company. This is an important and exciting validation of our product efficacy, and we look forward to driving continued innovation of valuable and compliance-enabling products and solutions for our customers."

About Arq

Arq (NASDAQ: ARQ) is a diversified, environmental technology company with products that enable a cleaner and safer planet while actively reducing our environmental impact. As the only vertically integrated producer of activated carbon products in North America, we deliver a reliable domestic supply of innovative, hard-to-source, high-demand products. We apply our extensive expertise to develop groundbreaking solutions to remove harmful chemicals and pollutants from water, land and air. Learn more at: www.arq.com.

Caution on Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which provides a “safe harbor” for such statements in certain circumstances. When used in this press release, the words “can,” “will,” "may," “intends,” “expects,” "continuing," “believes,” similar expressions and any other statements that are not historical facts are intended to identify those assertions as forward-looking statements. All statements that address activities, events or developments that the Company intends, expects or believes may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements or expectations regarding: business strategy, expectations about future demand and pricing for our PAC and GAC products and our ability to enter into new markets, the estimated costs and timing associated with potential capital improvements at our facilities, potential production outputs thereafter, expected market supply of GAC products and the cost savings and environmental benefits of our GAC products, and the timing and scope of future regulatory developments and the related impact of such on the demand for our products. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors including, but not limited to, timing of new and pending regulations and any legal challenges to or extensions of compliance dates of them; the U.S. government’s failure to promulgate regulations that benefit our business; changes in laws and regulations, accounting rules, prices, economic conditions and market demand; impact of competition; availability, cost of and demand for alternative energy sources and other technologies; technical, start up and operational difficulties; competition within the industries in which the Company operates; our inability to commercialize our products on favorable terms; our inability to effectively and efficiently commercialize new products; changes in construction costs or availability of construction materials; our inability to effectively manage construction and startup of the Red River GAC Facility or Corbin Facility; our inability to obtain required financing or financing on terms that are favorable to us; our inability to ramp up our operations to effectively address recent and expected growth in our business; loss of key personnel; ongoing effects of the inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty, including from the ongoing pandemic and armed conflicts around the world, and such uncertainty's effect on market demand and input costs; availability of materials and equipment for our business; intellectual property infringement claims from third parties; pending litigation; as well as other factors relating to our business strategy, goals and expectations concerning the Arq Acquisition (including future operations, future performance or results); our ability to maintain relationships with customers, suppliers and others with whom it does business and meet supply requirements, or its results of operations and business generally; risks related to diverting management's attention from our ongoing business operations; costs related to the Arq Acquisition; opportunities for additional sales of our AC products and end-market diversification; the timing and scope of new and pending regulations and any legal challenges to or extensions of compliance dates of them; our ability to meet customer supply requirements; the rate of coal-fired power generation in the U.S., the timing and cost of capital expenditure, as well as other factors relating to our business, as described in our filings with the SEC, with particular emphasis on the risk factor disclosures contained in those filings. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and to consult filings we have made and will make with the SEC for additional discussion concerning risks and uncertainties that may apply to our business and the ownership of our securities. In addition to causing our actual results to differ, the factors listed above may cause our intentions to change from those statements of intention set forth in this press release. Such changes in our intentions may also cause our results to differ. We may change our intentions, at any time and without notice, based upon changes in such factors, our assumptions, or otherwise. The forward-looking statements speak only as to the date of this press release.

Source: Arq, Inc.

Investor Contact:
Anthony Nathan, Arq
Marc Silverberg, ICR
[email protected]