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Slow recovery India keeps growing Prices rise?
Alexandra Feytis
SUPPLY SECURITY
The estimated 540,000 tpa wollastonite world production is mainly shared between China (55.5%), India (22%), the USA (12.4%) and Europe - Finland and Spain - and is essentially mined by the same handful of producers, although a few newcomers are attempting to enter the market.
After suffering the impact of the financial downturn for the last two years, the wollastonite industry is slowly getting back on track at different paces depending on the region. With no surprise, India is well in the lead with China - both working on developments to boost their capacities - followed by Europe, while the USA is still tailing.
USA
"In 2010, US producers had a significant increase in sales but they are not back to pre-crisis levels yet. That may not occur for a few years. The US market has been cyclic with a decline following 2001's US recession, growth through 2007, and then a decline in 2008 and 2009," Bob Virta, wollastonite specialist at the US Geological Survey (USGS), explained to IM.
"This looks like the start of the upward swing in the cycle in the USA," he added, pointing out that the market is now picking up for US producers. For wollastonite, the recovery started around mid-2010 in the USA when the automobile and manufacturing markets began to improve.
The USA has two producers of wollastonite: NYCO Minerals Inc. - the world's second largest producing company after Udaipur-based Wolkem India Ltd - and RT Vanderbilt Co. Inc. NYCO has three mines in the USA: Lewis, Oak Hill and Fox Knoll Mines (Essex County, New York) in addition to Pilares Mine in Sonora, Mexico.
NYCO supplies high aspect ratio (HAR) grade wollastonite for plastics (including automotive), rubber, paint and coatings, adhesives, sealants, metallurgy, ceramics, friction, fire-resistant calcium board and construction applications to Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America.
NYCO reported sales volumes at approximately 85% of 2008 levels. "Recovery was better than expected in 2010 and along with cost reduction programmes gave favourable year end revenue," Peter Goodwin, president and chief executive officer, explained to IM, however adding that a major concern is the increasing costs in logistics, specifically on ocean and rising fuel surcharges.
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