Carbon black manufacturing · Kansas

Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant

Ulysses, KS · ~50 workers · 5 years of OSHA Injury Tracking Application data.

A
Excellent Safety Record
0.9
Avg TCR
3.3
Industry avg
0
Fatalities
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The verdict

Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant runs at 28% of its industry's injury rate - far safer than the typical Carbon black manufacturing workplace, earning a grade A.

Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant: 0.9 TCR = 28% of Carbon black manufacturing BLS 3.3 · 5y Form 300A (see methodology below)

Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant safety composite

Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant scores strongest on total case rate (tcr) (safer than 76% of same-industry peers) and weakest on fatalities (safer than 51%), blended into one 0-100 breakdown against same-industry peers. A missing measure drops out and redistributes its weight rather than deflating the score. This is a per-dimension breakdown, distinct from the single letter grade above it (which weights TCR alone against the BLS industry benchmark).

C

69/100

Percentile-weighted across 3 of 3 measures

Total Case Rate (TCR)
B 0.94 per 100 workers

Safer than 76% of industry peers

DART rate
B 0 per 100 workers

Safer than 75% of industry peers

Fatalities
D 0

Safer than 51% of industry peers

Benchmarked live against every credibly-rated employer in the same NAICS industry code in the current OSHA extract (a segment must have at least 8 rated peers to benchmark). Not a legal or compliance determination; PlainSafetyScore's own weighting (TCR 40%, DART 35%, fatalities 25%).

Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant held a steady TCR band

Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant's TCR held near 0.0 from 0.0 in 2020 to 0.0 in 2024. Peak filing year was 2021 at 2.4 TCR. In 2024, DART was 0× this establishment's average TCR (severity share of cases).

2020=0.0 · 2021=2.4 · 2022=0.0 · 2023=2.3 · 2024=0.0

OSHA ITA Form 300A scorecard

Establishment book 325180 · Ulysses, KS AT/BELOW-IND · SMALL

Grade A · TCR 0.9 · 28% of ind

  • DART 0.0 DART
  • RANK #2/6
  • PHOTO Evonik Corporation
  • BOOK 5y book
  • INJ 2 inj
  • SIZE ~50 FTE

Nearest TCR peer: Evonik Corporation (0.0 TCR gap)

Read with this employer → · Industry book → · Kansas employers → · Look up another →

Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant in the TCR neighbourhood

Average Total Case Rate among this establishment and nearest same-industry peers

TCR

What this shows Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant averages 0.9 TCR (28% of the Carbon black manufacturing BLS benchmark).

Source U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA Injury Tracking Application (Form 300A) As of 2026-08-25

Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant TCR series: 2020=0 · 2021=2.4 · 2022=0 · 2023=2.3 · 2024=0 · BLS 3.3

Where Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant falls in its industry

418 Carbon black manufacturing establishments

Safer than 76% of graded establishments in this industry, whose median TCR is 1.9.

More dangerous than peersSafer than peers

Narrower to Kansas alone (the establishments it most directly competes with for workers and contracts): ranked #2 safest of 6 Carbon black manufacturing employers in Kansas.

Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant (50 employees, TCR 0.9) among 29 same-industry peers, split at the industry median of 61 employees and a TCR of 1.9 2×2 strategic matrix plotting 30 entities by Average employees (X) and Total Case Rate (Y), with a crosshair dividing the plot into four quadrants. Larger & higher-riskSmaller & higher-riskLarger & saferSmaller & safer than peers 0100200300400500 0246810 Average employees Total Case Rate Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant
Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant (50 employees, TCR 0.9) among 29 same-industry peers, split at the industry median of 61 employees and a TCR of 1.9

Birla Carbon USA Hickok Plant has fewer employees than the Carbon black manufacturing median and a lower injury rate than the industry's median TCR of 1.9. Workforce size and injury rate do not always move together within the same industry -- some of its smaller peers run higher rates than its larger ones, and vice versa.

Year-by-Year Safety Data

Year TCR DART Injuries Illnesses Fatalities
2024 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
2023 2.3 2.3 1 0 0
2022 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
2021 2.4 2.4 1 0 0
2020 0.0 0.0 0 0 0

OSHA ITA peer cross-reference

Establishment peer ledger

325180 · KS · Ulysses

418 Carbon black manufacturing employers nationwide with a credible TCR · 5,228 rated employers in Kansas with headcount on file · 16 employers in Ulysses, KS · 4 cross-state NAT-TCR peers · 4 cross-state NAT-SIZE peers. Closest matches by relationship code are listed below.

Rel Establishment Metric
NAICS-TCR Evonik Corporation 0.9 TCR
NAICS-TCR Wichita Plant 0.9 TCR
NAICS-TCR Nouryon 0.9 TCR
NAICS-TCR Eco Services Dominguez 0.9 TCR
STATE-SIZE Ford County Feed Yard, Inc. 50 FTE
STATE-SIZE Ford County Feeders LLC 50 FTE
STATE-SIZE Friona Cattle Feeders North #2 50 FTE
STATE-SIZE 4 Rivers Electric Cooperative, Inc 50 FTE
CITY-NEAR Western Kansas Irrigation, Inc. 88 FTE
CITY-NEAR Pioneer Electric Cooperative 69 FTE
CITY-NEAR Pioneer 68 FTE
CITY-NEAR Grant County Feeders 63 FTE
NAT-TCR Ford Construction Company, Inc. 0.9 TCR
NAT-TCR Renaissance House, Inc. Tiffn Ohio 0.9 TCR
NAT-TCR Allegheny Surveys, Inc. 0.9 TCR
NAT-TCR Ponder Plumbing 0.9 TCR
NAT-SIZE Popular Design Mill & Cabinet, Inc 50 FTE
NAT-SIZE Holley Inc. - Detroit Speed 50 FTE
NAT-SIZE Mccreary Roofing Co., Inc 50 FTE
NAT-SIZE Future Foam Inc. 50 FTE

Rel codes: NAICS-TCR · STATE-SIZE · CITY-NEAR · NAT-TCR/NAT-SIZE cross-state. Read with this employer →

Data Source: OSHA Injury Tracking Application (ITA), mandatory establishment-level injury/illness reports. Grades compare employer Total Case Rate (TCR) to BLS IIF industry benchmarks. Data covers years reported by this establishment: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020. This is publicly available government data - not a legal determination of workplace conditions.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details.