May 24 2005
Research and Markets has announced the addition of The Economics of Fluospar to their offering.
The early years of this decade have seen a gradual growth in world demand for fluorspar as well as significant price rises for acid-grade material.
The market is recovering from the impact of the phasing-out of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and is responding to their replacement by more ozone-friendly and also more fluorspar dependant products. Production of fluorspar fell to a low of 3.6Mt in 1994 in response to the restrictions imposed by the Montreal protocol on the use of fluorocarbons, particularly CFCs in refrigerant gases, aerosol propellants and foam blowing agents.
Production has not yet recovered to the peak of 5.48Mt in 1989 but since 1995 there has been some stabilisation and output has remained between 4.2 - 4.5Mt since 1997. With the rapid reduction in world output in the early 1990s there was considerable rationalisation of production and many mines closed. However, the recent fall in exports of fluorspar concentrates from China and the envisaged modest growth in the market has resulted in some increases in production in Mexico, Mongolia and Iran.
There are several proposals for new mine operations, including developments of deposits in Vietnam and Western Australia, and the re-opening of Burin mine in Canada. Overall requirement for fluorspar is expected to rise to 5Mt by 2030 and acid-grade will account for around 3.5Mt of this total. This represents an average annual growth rate of just under 0.5% for fluorspar as a whole and 0.9%pa for acid grade.
The key trends, issues and developments in the market are now analysed in this major new report. It provides a clear insight into all areas of the industry and an authoritative analysis of the prospects for the future.
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c17804