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Business
Minerals Technologies Inc. (the "Company") is a resource- and technology-based company that develops, produces and markets worldwide a broad range of specialty mineral, mineral-based and synthetic mineral products and supporting systems and services. The Company has two reportable segments: Specialty Minerals and Refractories. The Specialty Minerals segment produces and sells the synthetic mineral product precipitated calcium carbonate ("PCC") and processed mineral product quicklime ("lime"), and mines mineral ores then processes and sells natural mineral products, primarily limestone and talc. This segment's products are used principally in the paper, building materials, paint and coatings, glass, ceramic, polymer, food, automotive and pharmaceutical industries.
;The Refractories segment produces and markets monolithic and shaped refractory materials and specialty products, services and application and measurement equipment, and calcium metal and metallurgical wire products. Refractories segment products are primarily used in high-temperature applications in the steel, non-ferrous metal and glass industries.
The Company maintains a research and development focus. The Company's research and development capability for developing and introducing technologically advanced new products has enabled the Company to anticipate and satisfy changing customer requirements, creating market opportunities through new product development and product application innovations.
Specialty Minerals Segment
PCC Products and Markets
The Company's PCC product line net sales were $554.6 million, $534.7 million and $605.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively. The Company's sales of PCC have been, and are expected to continue to be, made primarily to the printing and writing papers segment of the paper industry. The Company also produces PCC for sale to companies in the polymer, food and pharmaceutical industries.
PCC Products - Paper
In the paper industry, the Company's PCC is used:
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As a filler in the production of coated and uncoated wood-free printing and writing papers, such as office papers;
As a filler for coated and uncoated groundwood (wood-containing) paper such as magazine and catalog papers; and
As a coating pigment for both wood-free and groundwood papers.
The Company's Paper PCC product line net sales were $496.6 million, $484.6 million and $547.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively.
Approximately 45% of the Company's sales consist of PCC sold to papermakers from "satellite" PCC plants. A satellite PCC plant is a PCC manufacturing facility located near a paper mill, thereby eliminating costs of transporting PCC from remote production sites to the paper mill. The Company believes the competitive advantages offered by improved economics and superior optical characteristics of paper produced with PCC manufactured by the Company's satellite PCC plants resulted in substantial growth in the number of the Company's satellite PCC plants since the first such plant was built in 1986. For information with respect to the locations of the Company's PCC plants as of December 31, 2010, see Item 2, "Properties," below.
The Company currently manufactures several customized PCC product forms using proprietary processes. Each product form is designed to provide optimum balance of paper properties including brightness, opacity, bulk, strength and improved printability. The Company's research and development and technical service staffs focus on expanding sales from its existing and potential new satellite PCC plants as well as developing new technologies for new applications. These technologies include, among others, acid-tolerant ("AT®") PCC, which allows PCC to be introduced to the large wood-containing segment of the printin
g and writing paper market, OPACARB® PCC, a family of products for paper coating, and our recently launched FulfillTM family of products, a system of high-filler technologies that offers papermakers a variety of efficient, flexible solutions which decrease dependency on natural fibers.
The Company owns, staffs, operates and maintains all of its satellite PCC facilities, and owns or licenses the related technology. Generally, the Company and its paper mill customers enter into long-term evergreen agreements, initially ten years in length, pursuant to which the Company supplies substantially all of the customer's precipitated calcium carbonate filler requirements. The Company is generally permitted to sell to third-parties PCC produced at a satellite plant in excess of the host paper mill's requirement.
The Company also sells a range of PCC products to paper manufacturers from production sites not associated with paper mills. These merchant facilities are located at Adams, Massachusetts; Lifford, England; and Walsum, Germany.
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PCC Markets - Paper
Uncoated Wood-Free Printing and Writing Papers – North America. Beginning in the mid-1980's, as a result of a concentrated research and development effort, the Company's satellite PCC plants facilitated the conversion of a substantial percentage of North American uncoated wood-free printing and writing paper producers to lower-cost alkaline papermaking technology. The Company estimates that during 2010, more than 90% of North American uncoated wood-free paper was produced employing alkaline technology. Presently, the Company owns and operates 17 commercial satellite PCC plants located at paper mills that produce uncoated wood-free printing and writing papers in North America.
Uncoated Wood-Free Printing and Writing Papers – Outside North America. The Company estimates the amount of uncoated wood-free printing and writing papers produced outside of North America at facilities that can be served by satellite and merchant PCC plants is more than twice as large (measured in tons of paper produced) as the North American uncoated wood-free paper market currently served by the Company. The Company believes that the superior brightness, opacity and bulking characteristics offered by its PCC products allow it to compete with suppliers of ground limestone and other filler products outside of North America. Presently, the Company owns and operates 21 commercial satellite PCC plants located at p
aper mills that produce uncoated wood-free printing and writing papers outside of North America.
Uncoated Groundwood Paper. The uncoated groundwood paper market, including newsprint, represents approximately 20% of worldwide paper production. Paper mills producing wood-containing paper still generally employ acid papermaking technology. The conversion to alkaline technology by these mills has been hampered by the tendency of wood-containing papers to darken in an alkaline environment. The Company has developed proprietary application technology for the manufacture of high-quality groundwood paper in an acidic environment using PCC (AT® PCC). Furthermore, as groundwood or wood-containing paper mills use larger
quantities of recycled fiber, there is a trend toward the use of neutral papermaking technology in this segment for which the Company presently supplies traditional PCC chemistries. The Company now supplies PCC at about 12 groundwood paper mills around the world and licenses its technology to a ground calcium carbonate producer to help accelerate the conversion from acid to alkaline papermaking.
Coated Paper. The Company continues to pursue satellite PCC opportunities in coated paper markets where our products provide unique performance and/or cost reduction benefits to papermakers and printers. Our Opacarb product line is designed to create value to the papermaker and can be used alone or in combination with other coating pigments. PCC coating products are produced at 8 of the Company's PCC plants worldwide.
Specialty PCC Products and Markets
The Company also produces and sells a full range of dry PCC products on a merchant basis for non-paper applications. The Company's Specialty PCC product line net sales were $58.0 million, $50.1 million and $58.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively. The Company sells surface-treated and untreated grades of PCC to the polymer industry for use in automotive and construction applications, and to the adhesives and printing inks industries. The Company's PCC is also used by the food and pharmaceutical industries as a source of bio-available calcium in tablets and food applications, as a buffering agent in tablets, and as a mild abrasive in toothpaste. The Company produces PCC for specialty applications from production sites at Adams, Massach
usetts and Lifford, England.
Processed Minerals - Products and Markets
The Company mines and processes natural mineral products, primarily limestone and talc. The Company also manufactures lime, a limestone-based product. The Company's net sales of processed mineral products were $110.4 million, $93.7 million and $110.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively. Net sales of talc products were $44.0 million, $32.3 million and $35.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively. Net sales of ground calcium carbonate ("GCC") products, which are principally lime and limestone, were $66.4 million, $61.4 million and $74.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively.
The Company mines and processes GCC products at its reserves in the eastern and western parts of the United States. GCC is used and sold in the construction, automotive and consumer markets.
Lime produced at the Company's Adams, Massachusetts, and Lifford, United Kingdom, facilities is used primarily as a raw material for the manufacture of PCC at these sites and at some satellite PCC plants, and is sold commercially to various chemical and other industries.
The Company mines, beneficiates and processes talc at its Barretts site, located near Dillon, Montana. Talc is sold worldwide in finely ground form for ceramic applications and in North America for paint and coatings and polymer applications. Because of the
exceptional chemical purity of the Barretts ore, a significant portion of worldwide automotive catalytic converter ceramic substrates contain the Company's Barretts talc.
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The Company's natural mineral products are supported by the Company's limestone reserves located in the western and eastern parts of the United States, and talc reserves located in Montana. The Company estimates these reserves, at current usage levels, to be in excess of 30 years at its limestone production facilities and in excess of 20 years at its talc production facility. See Item 2, “Properties,” for more information with respect to those facilities.
Our high quality limestone, dolomitic limestone, and talc products are defined primarily by the chemistry and color characteristics of the ore bodies. Ore samples are analyzed by x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and other techniques to determine purity and more generally by Hunter brightness measurement to determine dry brightness and the Hunter yellowness (b) value. We serve multiple markets from each of our operations, each of which has different requirements relating to a combination of chemical and physical properties.