Resumen de Ceramics: an urban landscape
Since the consolidation trend in the kaolin market, production from the US and UK has fallen from 2007 with Asia now the leading kaolin producer in the world. Chinese output for kaolin in 2011 is estimated at around 4m tonnes. A detailed market study identified 3m tonnes production, including both hydrous and calcined clay, of which the market split was dominated by ceramics (39%), paper (23%), paint (18%), plastics (5%) and others (15%).
USGS figures indicate that kaolin production from the US in 2012 amounted to 5.9m tonnes, Uzbekistan produced 5.5m tonnes, Germany 4.5m tonnes, Czech Republic 3.6m tonnes, Brazil 2.25m tonnes, with 8.3m tonnes produced by other countries including China.
Imerys SA is the market leader in the production of kaolin with KaMin, Thiele, Sibelco, AKW (Quartzwerke) and BASF being the others. The last independent UK kaolin producer disappeared in November 2012 as Imerys announced the acquisition of Goonvean's kaolin activities in Cornwall. This gave the company access to additional high-quality reserves for porcelain and other ceramics and platy clays for paper filler and other markets.
