The USA is the world’s leading consumer and producer of crude and expanded perlite. The list of countries producing large amounts of crude and expanded perlite includes Greece, China, Italy, Mexico, Turkey and the Philippines. Vermiculite is also found in different parts of the globe. The world’s major vermiculite mines are situated in China, the USA, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Brazil.
As of 2012, the global perlite production registered a 3.4% YoY increase and climbed to around 2.66 million tonnes. China called for just over 27% of the global perlite production volume in 2012, and the country was the dominant perlite manufacturer. It was followed by the US, Greece and Turkey.
Perlite: structure of the world production broken down by country, 2012
As far as vermiculite concerned, its production volume witnessed a 2.9% increase in 2012, and reached around 603 million tonnes. South Africa was the leading vermiculite producer with a nearly 33.7% share of the global vermiculite supply. Robust growth in the worldwide perlite and vermiculite market was driven primarily by Asia during the past 5 years given the downturn recorded in the construction sector in most mature economies of North America and Europe.
Vermiculite: structure of the world production broken down by country, 2012
The global perlite and vermiculite production are predicted to pose stable growth in the years to come; and in 2016 to exceed 3.05 million tonnes and 679 million tonnes, respectively. This growth is forecast to be stimulated by the constantly rising demand worldwide coupled with novel capacity introductions.
More information on the perlite and vermiculite market can be found in the study “Perlite and Vermiculite: 2014 Market Review and Forecast”.