Talc: Trading
How whiteness, purity and fineness set the price
What this tab covers How and where it is bought and sold: who buys and sells, exchanges and benchmarks, contract types, the big trading houses and how prices are discovered.Talc is not exchange-traded. It is sold by grade under contracts between millers and industrial buyers, with prices set by whiteness, purity and fineness. Trade journals and price-reporting agencies publish indicative ranges. Humphreys records that Rio Tinto sold its talc business among non-core assets to cut debt after buying Alcan (pdf p. 240). Branded grades and long qualification of fillers in plastics and paper make customer relationships sticky.
Where it is bought (buyers)
- Plastics compounders and car parts makers in Germany, Japan, the US, Mexico and China
- Paint and coatings makers
- Paper mills and ceramic plants
- Germany (12%), US (11%) and Japan (9%) led world import value in 2024 (UN Comtrade)
Where it is sold (sellers)
- China (16% of world export value in 2024), US (12%), France (11%), Netherlands (10%), Pakistan (10%) and Italy (8%) (UN Comtrade)
- India exports to Southeast Asia, the Gulf and Africa (IBM 2015)
Exchanges and benchmarks
| Venue | Contract | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| None | No exchange-traded contract | Bilateral sales by grade |
Contract types
- Annual supply contracts by grade (whiteness, particle size, purity)
- Spot container sales of Indian, Pakistani and Chinese powder
Top trading houses
- Mostly direct sales by producers; distributors serve smaller users
How prices are discovered
- USGS US milled talc unit value
- Fastmarkets Industrial Minerals talc prices (paid)
- Trade unit values from UN Comtrade and DGCIS