Trends in papermaking minerals used in the Asia-Pacific region

The Asia Pacific papermaking giants are China, Japan and Korea followed by Indonesia. The strong trends in recent years have been the move to alkaline/neutral sizing which has assisted the move from kaolin and talc as the major filler minerals to ground calcium carbonate and precipitated calcium carbonate. Kaolin remains important as a constituent in many coating formulations and Chinese-sourced talc, due to its brightness and price will remain important especially in paper filler minerals. The need for ever increasing printing surface quality and continuing efforts by the paper manufacturers to keep costs under control will ensure minerals in papermaking will continue to be a dynamic subject in the years ahead.