4.15.3.1 Availability and Consumption

The production of talc in China in 1997 is 4.0689 million tons, and the actual supply is 2 million tons, if the unqualified products from part of township enterprises and those stored for further processing are excluded. 

The main consumption fields of talc in China are as follows: paper-making 58.1%, asphalt felt production 19.4%, ceramics 14.5%, paintings and coating 1.4% and cosmetics 1.7%. The other application fields are: pharmacy, rubber, electric cables, agricultural chemicals, textile, plastics, lubricant, anticorrosive agents, extinguisher, insecticide and so on. The consumption in all these fields makes up about 4.9%. At present, the annual domestic talc consumption is about 1 million tons, and part of the talc production is exported. Judged by the availability of talc, the production exceeds the demand. 

China is a major talc exporting country in the world. China's talc export volume occupies the first place in the world. It increased from 0.9482 million tons in 1991 to 1.6 million tons in 1995. The foreign exchange earned from talc export was increased from US $ 50.364 million in 1991 to US $ 83.43 million in 1995. In 1996 a bidding system for export volume was implementd, and the export volume has decreased in some extent to 1.0236 million tons, and then in 1997 it has been decreased further to 0.978 million tons. Since the exported talc products were mainly talc lumps and crudely processed ores, the export values were difficult to increase. Chinese talc is mainly exported to Japan, the Republic of Korea, the USA and several countries and regions in Southeast Asia and the European Union. The situation of talc export and import and foreign exchange earnings and spending is shown in Table 4.15.3. In recent years, of all exported talc products the percentage of talc powder tends to increase.

Table 4.15.3 Talc import and export in China in 1994~1997

  Asian market: In Asia, the traditional export markets of China are the countries and regions in Southeast and Northeast Asia. Japan is the largest talc import country of China with an annual talc import volume from China of several hundred thousand tons. The talc import volume of Japan and the USA from China makes up about 50% of their total import volume. The imported talc is applied mainly in the industries of papermaking, panits and coatings, ceramics, cosmetics and so on, of which more than 60% are applied for papermaking. In recent years, Japan has readjusted its talc processing industry and increased the talc import from China, closed some processing plants and transferred processing equipment to China, running cooperating production or compensation trade with China. In 1997, Japan imported 0.42 million tons of talc from China with an increase of 37.69% over 1996, which accounted for 43.1% of China's total talc export volume of the year. The foreign exchange earnings of China were US $ 31.7441 million. Nevertheless, of all Japan's imported talc the percentage of talc lumps was high. The talc purchased by Japanese merchants was processed into ultrafine-ultramicronized powder, which was sold to its domestic users. At present, the share of Chinese talc in the Japanese market remains stable. It is unlikely to be increased considerably in the future. 

The Republic of Korea ( ROK ) is another major market of China's exported talc. In 1997, the ROK imported 0.1628 million tons of talc from China, decreasing by 24.54% against 1996, which accounted for 16.64% of China's total talc export volume. China's foreign exchange earnings were US $ 14.1366 million with a decrease of 5.37% in comparison with 1996. Since the ROK's industry is well developed, its demand for high-grade talc is large. However the majority of its talc resources is low-grade talc and pyrophillite. Its high-grade talc reserves are very small. The production of high-grade talc can only meet 43% of its demand. The rest should be imported from abroad. 

Southeast Asia is lack of talc resources, and in addition, the economy in the region has been developing rapidly in recent years, needing large amount of talc for  consumption. China has a superiority not only in geographic location, but also in the superior quality of talc products. According to the incomplete statictics, China exported some 0.31 million tons of talc to Southeast Asian countries and regions, earning foreign exchange of US $ 15.22 million, increasing by 61.5% and 54% respectively over 1992. In 1997, China exported 0.17 million tons of talc, earning foreign exchange of US $ 13.40 million. Is is estimated that the talc import volume and value in this region from China in the near future are unlikely to be increased greatly. 

European market: The European talc market capacity is large. The annual talc consumption in Europe is over 1.4 million tons. However, the talc transportation cost occupies a high percentage in the whole talc cost . The Chinese talc is rather difficult to enter to the European market. In 1997, the China's talc export volume to the European market was about 50,000 tons. The major talc importing conutries in Europe are Holland (21,000 tons), Italy (18,000 tons ) and UK (8,000 tons ). It is estimated that the share of the Chinese talc in the European market in the coming years is difficult to raise greatly. The grades of the talc products should be highened as quickly as possible, and a straegy of winning by quality should be carried out .  

American market: The talc export volume of China to the USA in 1997 was 84,000 tons, which is increased by 6.98% over 1996, accounting for 8.59% of China's total export volume. At present, the China's talc demand of the USA is still in an increasing tendency. The proportion of China's talc products entering into the American market will be increased year by year. 

Among all the exported talc volume of China in 1997, 0.546 million tons were from Liaoning, 0.245 million tons were from Guangxi, 0.183 million tons were from Shandong. The talc exported volumes of these 3 producing areas accounted for 56%, 25% and 19% of the total China's export respectively. They are mainly exported to  Northeast and Southeast Asia.

4.15.3.2 Trends 

China is one of the countries with the largest talc reserves and production in the world, and has an industrial base of considerable scale. The explored talc reserves in China can completely meet the needs for the trans-century development of the national economy. 

With the development of the world's and China's economy, the demand for talc at home and abroad is increasing. The talc market prospect is promising. It is estimated that in the coming 10 years, the demand of talc in the world will increase in a high speed with an average annual increase rate of 5%. Talc has already become one of the nonmetallic mineral products with a high demand increase rate. At present, China has occupied about half of the international talc market. China's talc is exported to 57 countries and regions in the world. Its talc products enjoy a high prestige in Japan, Southeast Asia, Western Europe and the USA. With the development of economy and the hightening of the technical level of production in China, China will make great effort to enter into the international market with series products of international standard. Additionally, China will strengthen the comprehensive utilization of talc resources. 

Recently, the talc raw materials and primary products still prevail in the China's talc export to Japan and the ROK. The prices of them are low. The common FOB price is just US $ 40~60/t, which is greatly lower than US $ 400/t in the Japanese market and US $ 200~300/t in the Western European markets. On the other side, the prices of China's imported talc products are somewhat higher than those in the Japanese and Western European domestic markets. The import prices are 4~8 times higher than export ones. In recent years Japanese enterprises have introduced a vast amount of American talc processing technologies. That is extremely unfavourable to the export of China's deep-processed products. Another competitor of China's talc export is Australia. At present, Australia has a talc processing capacity of 0.24 million tons and 90% of its products are exported to Japan, the ROK and Western Europe. This indicates that the competition in the international talc markets is very sharp. Europe is lack of high-grade talc resources suitable to coatings and fillers for papermaking. These fields are one of major markets of China's talc. But, with the change in papermaking technologies, many traditional customers of talc powder have turned to use of cheaper coatings and fillers of calcium carbonate. This makes the world's talc exporters including China to face a new challenge. 

The key environmental protection problem in the talc production is the treatment of dust and waste water. After precipitation treatment of waste water from ore washing, the clear water can be recycled for use. The tailings, mud and sand are delivered to the waste rock yard. A large amount of dust resulting from ultrafine milling of talc products is prevented ordinarily by the sealing hoods. The solid particles are collected by the cyclone separators and bag dust-filters and cleaned air is discharged to the atmosphere.