Over 3% Growth Forecast for Global Fillers Market till 2024

German market research company, Ceresana, recently released a report on the global market for fillers. The report predicts the worldwide demand for ground calcium carbonate (GCC), precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC), kaolin, talc, carbon black, and other fillers to reach 75-mt in 2024, with revenues growing at an average of 3.2% per year.

Applications areas

The most important applications for fillers are the production and processing of paper, plastics, paints & varnishes, elastomers as well as adhesives & sealants.

While application in the paper industry accounts for a market share of 31% in Western Europe, the share is below 19% in Asia. Vice versa, manufacturers of elastomer products in Asia hold shares of about 32% on the filler market – in Western Europe the share amounts to 22%. The most important sales market for fillers in 2016 was the segment elastomers. This application area accounted for about 28% of global total consumption. For the upcoming years, Ceresana expects further steady growth in this segment.

Plastics are the second largest application area worldwide. Demand for fillers in this segment will presumably increase to about 22-mt in 2024. New and more demanding applications for engineering plastics and compounds require fillers to possess properties of an ever-higher quality. Automotive engineering, for example, systemically utilises fillers to reduce the weight of the product and increase the stability of plastic products. Additionally, the production of highly filled compounds with properties tailored to meet the exact needs of individual customers is rising as well – these plastics contain up to 85% of fillers, possess excellent mechanical properties and are even more cost-effective than conventional materials in many cases.

GCC and carbon black dominate

With a market share of 34%, the most commonly used filler on the global market is GCC. Over the past eight years, global demand for GCC has increased by an average of 2.7% per year. Out of the total volume used worldwide in 2016, about 50% were in Asia-Pacific. Until 2024, Ceresana forecasts an annual increase of GCC at rates of 2.5%. The largest consumer of GCC is the plastics segment, which is likely to increase its demand for fillers even further. Paints and varnishes ranked second, followed by paper.

Carbon black is the second largest sales market with a demand of 11.7-mt. The rubber industry is the most important application area for carbon black. It is used as a reinforcing filler, since it significantly increases the abrasion resistance of tyre-rubber. PCC is the third largest sales market. Many properties of PCC are identical to those of GCC. PCC is most frequently used in the production of paper, followed by the use in paints & varnishes.