Metspar faces permanent market shrinkage

• Autores: Shruti Salwan
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 582, 2016 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Abril)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The metallurgical grade fluorspar (metspar) industry could shrink permanently if the global steel sector, metspar's largest end market, continues to contract.

    As well as falling consumption in steel making, where metspar is used as a flux, the material's usage was also affected by lower activity in the cement and welding markets. These industries consume less than 100,000 tpa metspar, under 2% of the total volume consumed globally. However, decreases in demand here are having an impact on the already fragile market.

    With 49% of the world's metspar produced in China in 2012, and a further 16% of output coming from Mongolia (which sends almost all of its output to China), global dependency on east Asia for metspar supply is likely to increase as mines in other parts of the world shut down.