Abrasives: Characteristics
Tough, pure or sharp: picking the right grit
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | not published as output; world capacity 1.3 Mt fused aluminium oxide and 1.0 Mt silicon carbide (2025) | USGS publishes capacity, not output, for the world. US output in 2025 was 20,000 t crude fused alumina (with Canada), 30,000 t silicon carbide and 160,000 t metallic abrasives. | USGS MCS 2026, Abrasives (Manufactured) |
| Inventory and stock levels | not published | No exchange or government stocks exist. Grain makers and wheel producers hold working stocks. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Capacity utilisation | US silicon carbide about 75% (30,000 t of 40,000 t); US-Canada crude fused alumina about a third of US capacity (derived, 2025) | Low North American rates reflect competition from cheaper Chinese imports. Chinese utilisation is not published. | USGS MCS 2026 (ratios derived) |
| Geographic and producer concentration | China about 62% of fused alumina and 45% of silicon carbide capacity; HHI about 3,900 and 2,200 | Top-3 fused alumina capacity (China, Austria, Germany) is about 75%. China supplied 96% of US crude fused alumina imports and 97% of crude silicon carbide imports in 2025. Company shares are not published; Saint-Gobain, 3M and CUMI lead in finished products. | USGS MCS 2026 (HHI computed from capacity table) |
| Supply elasticity | moderate: furnaces can restart quickly, but power cost decides where | Capacity was flat from 2024 to 2025. US crude silicon carbide prices nearly doubled from $587/t to $1,080/t in 2022 during the energy shock, showing how supply cost follows electricity. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | not published; no capacity change in 2024-2025 | World capacity was unchanged. Demand for high-purity silicon carbide for power electronics is growing, but that is made by different processes than abrasive grit. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Logistics and export flows | China exports crude grain; Europe and Brazil export refined grain | The US imported 150,000 t of fused alumina and 95,000 t of silicon carbide in 2025. US Section 301 duties add 7.5-25% on Chinese products. Canada leads US metallic abrasive imports (47%, 2021-24). | USGS MCS 2026 |
Material characteristics Industrial mineral
Manufactured abrasives are sold on hardness, toughness, purity and grit size. Brown fused alumina is tough and cheap, white fused alumina purer and more friable, and silicon carbide harder and sharper but more brittle. Grit is sized to international standards so that wheel and paper makers get a predictable finish. Metallic shot and grit are sold by size and hardness.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purity | brown fused alumina about 95-97% Al2O3; white fused alumina above 99%; black silicon carbide about 98% SiC, green above 99% (indicative) | Higher purity grades cut cleaner and sell at a premium; impurities change toughness | producer specifications, indicative |
| Hardness | Mohs about 9 for alumina and about 9.5 for silicon carbide (indicative) | Must be harder than the material ground; silicon carbide suits stone, glass and cast iron | mineralogy reference values, indicative |
| Grit size | graded to FEPA F and P series (ISO 8486, ISO 6344) or ANSI B74.12 | Size sets cutting rate and surface finish; buyers specify grit number | FEPA; ISO; ANSI |
| Toughness / friability | brown alumina tough; white alumina and silicon carbide more friable | Friable grains self-sharpen, suiting precision grinding | producer data, indicative |
| Steel shot hardness | cast steel shot about 40-51 HRC (SAE J827, indicative) | Hardness and size control blast cleaning and peening intensity | SAE J827 (indicative) |
| Crude vs refined grain | US import value $699/t crude vs $1,500/t ground and refined fused alumina (2025) | Crushing and sizing roughly double the value of crude grain | USGS MCS 2026 |