China Powder Network News From May 16th to 18th, the 2016 National Calcium Carbonate Industry Annual Conference, hosted by the Calcium Carbonate Branch of the China Inorganic Salt Industry Association, was held in Shijiazhuang, Hebei. The industry widely anticipates that by adhering to innovative and green development, substantial progress will be made in industrial upgrading during the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

China Powder Network News From May 16th to 18th, the 2016 National Calcium Carbonate Industry Annual Conference, hosted by the Calcium Carbonate Branch of the China Inorganic Salt Industry Association, was held in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province. The industry widely anticipates that by adhering to innovative and green development, substantial progress will be made in industrial upgrading during the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

Wang Xiaofeng, President of the China Inorganic Salt Industry Association, pointed out at the meeting that the current Chinese calcium carbonate industry faces issues such as oversupply of bulk products, reliance on imported high-end products, insufficient innovation capabilities, and low industrial concentration. Therefore, industrial upgrading has become a major theme for the calcium carbonate industry during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. The calcium carbonate industry should focus on high-end development, improve product modification, enrich and enhance product performance; promote the refined and specialized development of products, focusing on crystal form control to provide a foundation for downstream development; improve product, production equipment, and process control upgrades, as well as upgrading from mechanization to automation and intelligence; and establish group standards, as existing national standards no longer represent the industry's advanced level, thus establishing group standards will help increase the variety of industry-specific calcium products and improve product quality.

Liu Zhuzeng, a Chinese calcium carbonate industry expert consultant, told reporters that high-end calcium carbonate products require a nano-level particle size and surface modification to fully meet the functional and specialized needs of downstream industries such as papermaking, plastics, rubber, and coatings. For example, calcium carbonate used in the paper industry needs to have a matching crystal form and a certain degree of whiteness.

To improve the industry's innovation capabilities, representatives at the meeting generally hoped for close cooperation between industry, academia, and research, strengthened advanced technology exchanges among enterprises, explored the establishment of a technology cooperation alliance, jointly tackled industry hot spots and difficult problems, and integrated and shared results. Wang Xiaofeng suggested that the calcium carbonate industry should accelerate the establishment of an industry innovation platform, strengthen the establishment of industry-specific key laboratories, engineering laboratories, engineering research centers, and application innovation alliances, and other industry-specific public R&D platforms to enhance the industry's innovation capabilities, laying a solid foundation and building a platform for innovative development.

Tao Lianyin, director of the China Inorganic Salt Industry Association's consulting committee, pointed out that the industry should focus on green development during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. Currently, the production of light calcium carbonate still relies on calcination kilns and dryers, and most enterprises still use coal as a heat source. Therefore, enterprises should combine regional advantages, find coal substitutes, or increase investment in desulfurization and denitrification to ensure compliance with comprehensive environmental protection requirements. Wang Xiaofeng suggested accelerating the establishment of industry access or energy efficiency leader systems to raise the industry's energy conservation and environmental protection entry threshold, which will also help eliminate backward production capacity.

The industry also expressed expectations for mergers and acquisitions and "going global." There are many calcium carbonate companies in China, but their production capacity is basically around 100,000 tons/year, so mergers and acquisitions and industrial concentration are inevitable trends. In recent years, China's total import and export volume of calcium carbonate has remained at 120,000 to 130,000 tons, with exports reaching 94,400 tons in 2015. While focusing on domestic expansion of domestic demand, further accelerating "going global" is also a necessary path for the calcium carbonate industry.