Kaolin is a kind of pure fine-grained clay mainly composed of Kaolinite mineral resources. It is widely used in ceramics, refractory materials, coatings, paper making, rubber and other industries because of its white, soft, excellent plasticity, fire resistance and other physical and chemical properties. In recent years, with the application of kaolin in some high-tech fields such as atomic reactors and aerospace, its value as a strategic mineral raw material has increasingly emerged. However, according to the editor of China's Powder Network, high-end kaolin products are still considered a "bottleneck" mineral material for China, relying on a large number of imported products, and there is still a certain gap between their processing technology and equipment compared to foreign ones. Below are a few rough comparisons between domestic and imported kaolin products.

Calcined kaolin for coating and papermaking profession

According to the statistics of "Development and Application of Non metallic Mines", from January to December 2016, the total export volume and amount of kaolin in China were 1247254.71 tons and 106.1709 million US dollars respectively. During the same period, the total amount and amount of imported kaolin in China were 431871.64 tons and 99.3075 million US dollars respectively. By uniform calculation, the price of domestically produced kaolin in 2016 was about 85 US dollars per ton, while the price of imported kaolin was about 230 US dollars per ton. The price of imported kaolin was nearly twice that of domestically produced kaolin.

According to data from China Academy of Commerce and Industry, the national export volume of kaolin in 2017 was 1155709.7 tons, with an export amount of 114.9598 million US dollars. In 2017, the national import volume of kaolin was 533702.5t, with an import amount of 119596000 US dollars. After even calculation, the price of domestically produced kaolin in 2017 was about $99/t, while the price of imported kaolin was about $224/t. The price of imported products is still much higher than that of domestically produced kaolin.

Significant differences in consumption structure

The consumption structure of kaolin in China differs significantly from the uniform level of countries such as the United States. Domestic kaolin is concentrated in the ceramic category, accounting for 55%, while countries such as the United States have an average consumption share of about 15% in the ceramic category. Compared to the low-end ceramic industry, in the field of papermaking, high-end domestic kaolin products have a significantly smaller consumption share of about 30%, while the average level in countries such as the United States is above 45%. The kaolin used in domestic papermaking mainly relies on high-quality and high priced imported products.

One reason for this is that the grade of kaolin resources in China is relatively low. Although the reserves are relatively large, most of them can only be applied to low-end ceramic fields or fillers. Furthermore, there is a significant gap in the processing technology and equipment of kaolin in China compared to other countries. Although various types of ultrafine crushing equipment have been developed in China, there is still a significant gap compared to advanced foreign equipment in terms of structure, raw materials, processing precision, stability, and efficiency.

There are significant differences in the scope of new products and applications

In addition to having more low-end products, there are also significant differences in the development of new products and new application areas between China and countries such as the United States in terms of the industrial structure of kaolin in China. Although China has done a lot of research work, such as calcining kaolin products, synthesizing 0.4 nm molecular sieves, and developing high-temperature special ceramics, many products are still in the laboratory stage and there is still a gap between industrialization. Relatively speaking, foreign products and applications involve many aspects, including ceramic building materials, chemicals, environmental protection, textiles, atomic reactors, jet aircraft and other high-temperature refractory material industries.

Industrial concentration and planning differ greatly

According to the relevant person in charge of the China Nonmetallic Mining Association, the annual production of kaolin in China is approximately 7 million tons. Compared with the world, the concentration of China's kaolin industry is relatively low, and enterprise planning is generally small. At present, most domestic kaolin production companies have a production capacity of several hundred thousand tons, while major kaolin production companies in the world, such as Imerya in France, have a production capacity of about 5.9 million tons; The production capacity of Engelhard, Huber, and Tbiele in the United States is approximately 1.8 million tons, 1.4 million tons, and 1.2 million tons respectively; The production capacity of Cadam in Brazil is approximately 1 million tons.

There are significant differences in product functional requirements

Taking the main functional indicators of high whiteness ultrafine kaolin produced by American kaolin production companies as an example and the functional requirements of precision kaolin for special rubber and plastic coatings in China (referring to JC/T 2370-2016 Precision Kaolin), it can be seen that the particle size of American kaolin is -2 μ The requirement for m is above 96%, while the domestic requirement is above 85%; The requirement for the 325 mesh sieve residue of kaolin in the United States is not higher than 0.5%, and the requirement for domestic kaolin is not higher than 1%; The spherical ratio requirement for kaolin in the United States is 4.2, while there is currently no such requirement in China.

Summary

Based on the above points, the author believes that in order to improve the level of domestic kaolin products and shorten the gap with advanced foreign countries, the country can guide several planned leading enterprises in the kaolin industry to restructure and integrate, gather capital, skills, and resources, develop precision processes and equipment, and develop new products for high-end application areas such as atomic reactors, national defense, military industry, aerospace, etc, In order to improve the current situation of unreasonable structure and low product functionality.