Abstract
The Economics of Ground Calcium Carbonate
The new Roskill report on the ground calcium carbonate industry will be
published in April 2005. It will provide up-to-date market analysis of
resources, production, consumption, trade and prices. In addition it is a
statistical sourcebook with detailed tables and figures so that you can find
the data you need at a glance. World capacity of ground calcium carbonate
(GCC) has expanded significantly over the last decade, reaching an estimated
56.5Mtpy for all grades in 2004. Much of this increase is devoted to the
production of fillers and coatings for paper as papermakers have switched to a
neutral or alkali processing environment. The proportion of the paper pigment
market accounted for by GCC has risen from under 1% in 1970 to 50% in 2004.
Omya, operating plants in 40 countries, is estimated to account for over 70%
of the supply of paper grade GCC. They have an estimated capacity of 21.8
Mtpy, making them by far the largest producer with 39% of world total. Other
leading producers are Imerys, Huber Engineered Materials and Speciality
Minerals for finer grades of GCC, and Global Stone and Franklin Minerals for
coarser grades based on limestone. The majority of GCC capacity is located in
North America and Western Europe but Asian capacity is increasing at a higher
rate. Plants are usually located close to the source of marble, limestone or
chalk; however, increasing demand for GCC derived from high brightness marble
has led to some producers shipping high brightness marble to GCC plants close
to end use markets. The plastics industry is the second largest user of GCC,
accounting for an estimated 10.2Mtpy of demand in 2004. Demand is increasingly
concentrated in Asia, largely as a result of growth in the Chinese market. A
significant growth opportunity in Western Europe and the USA is the use of GCC
in the manufacture of polyolefin where fine-grained material is being used in
breathable films. This market is well established in the production of diapers
and will have other uses in disposable clothing and healthcare. The very steep
increase in GCC production and consumption in the last decade in Western
Europe is likely to begin to slow, as it is already established as the major
pigment used in the paper industry. There is still some room for replacement
of kaolin by GCC in the USA, but this is restricted in some areas by a lack of
good quality marble. The major growth area for the next five years will be in
Asia, particularly China, where new capacity is likely to take the form of
satellite plants of paper mills. In its latest report on the ground calcium
carbonate industry, Roskill forecasts that world consumption of GCC will rise
by an average of 3%py to 2010 to reach 67.6Mt. Paper will continue to be the
largest consuming sector, accounting for 28Mt of consumption by 2010, while
plastics will account for a further 12.2Mt.
The key trends, issues and developments in the market are now analysed in this
major new report from Roskill. It provides a clear insight into all areas of
the industry and an authoritative analysis of the prospects for the future.
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