Global Scandium Market - Segmented by Product Type, End-User Industry and Geography - Trends and Forecasts (2015-2020) - Reportlinker Review
NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Scandium Market is currently at a nascent stage. It is believed that with a reliable supply, demand could increase exponentially. Scandium, being an alloy, allows aluminum to be welded. Imagine airplanes without rivets, weighing 15-20% less.
Due to its unique properties, scandium finds application in a wide spectrum of industries. The better part of the worlds annual scandium supply is used in scandium-aluminum alloys, the products major application by weight. The strong alloy is usually used in the making of select aerospace industry components. Scandium is also extensively alloyed with other metals. Approximately 80 kilograms of the global scandium supply are used annually to make halide lamps/light bulbs.
The overall production does not meet the potential demand for the product, and there are no leading scandium producers. Consumers still depend on the former Soviet Union's stockpiles of scandium oxide. This is a major restraint for this market.
Alloyed with aluminum, it produces one of the lightest, strongest alloys in the world, one with significantly improved durability, plasticity, weldability, and corrosion resistance.
Resources of scandium are abundant, especially when considered in relation to demand. Scandium is rarely concentrated in nature because of its lack of affinity for the common ore-forming anions. It is widely dispersed in the lithosphere and it forms solid solutions with more than 100 minerals. In the earth's crust, scandium is primarily a trace constituent of ferromagnesian minerals. Concentrations in these minerals (amphibole-hornblende, biotite, and pyroxene) typically range from 5-100 parts per million scandium oxide equivalent. Ferromagnesian minerals commonly occur in mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks. Enrichment of scandium also occurs in aluminum phosphate minerals, beryl, cassiterite, columbite, garnet, muscovite, rare-earth minerals, and wolframite. Scandium that was produced domestically was primarily from the scandium-yttrium silicate mineral thortveitite, and from byproduct leach solutions from uranium operations. One of the principal domestic scandium resources is fluorite.
Major production areas: Australia, China, Madagascar and Kazakhstan among others. Consumption areas include: China, United States, Japan, and European Union among others.
Drivers:
Aerospace will be the biggest demand driver because in this industry anything that adds strength while saving weight is considered invaluable. Airbus estimates that an aircraft made from welded aluminum scandium zirconium (AlScZr) alloy would be 15% lighter and 15% cheaper to build compared to present materials. A growing demand in downstream markets is a great driver for Scandium.
Restraints:
Commercially viable deposits of scandium are rare, thus there has been little production of the metal, and as a result commercial application of scandium is limited. The applications mentioned above have better emerging uses than for the current scandium applications.
Opportunities:
New avenues in chemical refining technology are seen as a good opportunity for scandium manufacturers to tap into. In addition, innovative product application of scandium provides an excellent prospect.
What the report contains?
The report elucidates the situation of scandium around the world and studies its markets by product type, which include metal, carbonate, chloride, nitrate, oxide, fluoride and alloy; and by end-user industry: aerospace, fuel cells, 3D printing, ceramics, electronics, lightning, chemical refining and displays.
Lastly, the report is divided by production market Australia, China, Madagascar, Kazakhstan, Norway, Russia and Ukraine; by consumption market China, U.S., Japan, European Union, India, Russia and others, where in the market share of each region is analyzed and estimates are provided for the next 6 years. Apart from that, import & export and price analysis is also provided.
Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p03281933-summary/view-report.html
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