Imerys to Acquire Latin American Carbonate Producer Quimbarra
Quimbarra operates 15 plants in Latin America (seven in Brazil, five in Argentina, three in Mexico) and owns high-quality minerals reserves. Its sales amount to 220,000 m.t. of PCC and 150,000 m.t. of GCC, representing global sales of approximately $55 million.
Imerys says that for its paper division, the Quimbarra acquisition represents the company's commitment to the carbonate market and strengthens its presence in PCC for paper, adding five satellite plants in Argentina and Brazil to its five North American plants.
For Imerys' performance minerals division, Quimbarra significantly strengthens the company's pigments-for-specialties activities in Latin America. The acquisition substantially increases Imerys' GCC production capacity in Brazil and Mexico. It broadens the product range offered to clients in this region, to include PCC, in line with the Group's multi-pigments strategy.
Imerys points out that Quimbarra allows it to enter the global market for PCC for very high-purity applications, such as toothpaste, cosmetics, or pharmaceuticals., adding that these markets offer major development potential worldwide. Since the merger with English China Clays, the Quimbarra acquisition comes on the heels of related acquisitions and activities during the past few months, including:
- Acquisition of Mexican GCC Producer Trico
- Acquisition of two PCC plants in the USA
- Recent contract for a new satellite PCC plant in the USA
- Acquisition of the GCC business of the French company AGS-BMP.
Imerys is a multi-pigment resource in the business of kaolin and carbonates for paper, "focused on helping paper producers build differentiated products, markets, and profitability." It is a $2.5 billion company with approximately one billion dollars in annual sales to the paper industry.
The company holds key kaolin reserves for paper in Cornwall, England, Middle Georgia USA, Capim, Brazil, and Pittong, Australia. These properties and advanced manufacturing facilities represent the largest investment of this kind for paper minerals. Imerys has 25 GCC facilities in all papermaking regions, and points out that it has a growing position in PCC, including a large share of the coating PCC market in North America.
Edited by Ken Patrick