Kaolin is a very important and very versatile nonmetal mineral, because it has plasticity, cohesiveness, dispersion, fire resistance, insulation and chemical stability and other performance, so it is widely used in papermaking, ceramics, plastics, rubber, chemical industry, electronics, coatings, paints, refractories, military industry, medicine, cosmetics, pesticide and so on dozens of industries.
Kaolin is rich in global reserves, about 32 billion tons of proven reserves worldwide, the United States with 8.2 billion tons of reserves ranked first.
China's kaolin reserves are close to 3.5 billion tons.
According to statistics, from 2017 to 2019, the total supply (output) of domestic kaolin is 6.91 million tons, 6.65 million tons and 6.4 million tons respectively, and the total demand is 6.23 million tons, 6.38 million tons and 6.51 million tons, gradually showing the situation that the supply exceeds the demand.
The main reason is that on the supply side, under the stricter environmental law enforcement and the promotion of supply-side reform, unlicensed mines have been shut down, small and medium-sized mines are difficult to meet environmental standards, and the overall supply of the industry has decreased.
If the above-mentioned market trend is developed, it is expected that the domestic kaolin demand scale will reach about 7.5 million tons by 2025, and the contradiction between supply and demand will be more prominent.
At present, Japanese ceramics, paper, coatings and refractories are the traditional areas of demand for kaolin.
In 2019, the demand for kaolin in the ceramic sector is about 3.694,000 tons, the demand for paper industry is 760,000 tons, the demand for coating industry is 605,000 tons, and the demand for refractory materials is 558,000 tons.
However, the above-mentioned areas are also facing the situation of mature industry development and declining market space growth.
The new application fields of kaolin are constantly expanding, and new fields such as catalyst, cosmetics, medicine and military industry have higher requirements for kaolin indexes.
In summary, the demand for kaolin in downstream applications will gradually concentrate on the medium and high grade products with good physical and chemical indexes. In the case of scarce high-quality resources, the further processing of kaolin is the future development trend.
1. Medical kaolin
As a kind of good filler and auxiliary material, medical kaolin has important applications in the fields of medical supplies seasoning, medical accessories, hemostatic materials and so on.
From 2016 to 2020, the national demand for medical kaolin increased from 20,000 tons to 160,000 tons, with an annual compound growth rate of 51.57%.
2. Super fine kaolin
High-grade fine kaolin is mainly used in advanced electronic components, representative products are 5G ceramic filters and multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC).
In the field of 5G, the construction peak period is 2020~2023. The number of 5G base stations is about 1.5 times of the number of 4G base stations, nearly 8.5 million. According to the estimate of 3 antennas per base station and 64 filters per antenna, the ceramic medium filter market demand reaches 1.6 billion.
In addition, MLCC is one of the largest and fastest growing chip components in the world, with an average monthly demand of 120 billion units in mobile phones, 100 billion units in vehicle, 150 billion units in home appliances, PCs and servers, and security, and 100 billion units in other areas.
Drived by strong demand for 5G, new energy vehicles and IoT, the domestic demand for super-fine kaolin is expected to rise from 200,000 tons to 310,000 tons from 2019 to 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 9.16%.
3. Kaolin for cosmetics
In the field of cosmetics, kaolin is used in shampoos, facial cleansers, ordinary facial masks, creams and other care products, as well as in isolation creams and cosmetics. It can be used as filler (base material) or in formulas.
From 2016 to 2020, the domestic demand for cosmetics grade kaolin increased from 40,000 tons to 300,000 tons, with an annual compound growth rate of 49.63%.
4. Kaolin for papermaking
In the field of papermaking kaolin, there is still a high demand for white board paper and coated paper in the field of living and packaging. Kaolin can make paper have good covering performance and coating gloss, and increase whiteness and printability.
From 2016 to 2020, the domestic demand for papermaking grade kaolin increased from 520,000 tons to 680,000 tons, with an annual compound growth rate of 5.51%.
It is worth noting that the import rate of papermaking kaolin in China has been maintained at a high level of 80%~85% for a long time. Although the growth rate of papermaking market is leveling off, there is still a large room for import substitution.
PUDA Kaolin Packing machine:
