I may have stumbled across a reason why K999 became an issue. WAK had always suffixed its products as K99S (standard), K99C (ceramics), K99P (paper), and significantly K99F (fibreglass). This suggests it tinkered product broadly to meet sector specifications, and K99F would have been a fine-particle-size product, because that is what E-glass requires, and it is extremely important. Since WAK's early contact with Dak Tai Trading years ago, the parties would have negotiated on particle size, and in improving it. WAK started with K99F, which in all likelihood was better than 99+% purity, and less than 99.9% purity. Particle size is not purity, but the closer one gets to 2 microns (equivalent sperical diameter) the purer the purity tends to be, I would think. The close relationship between the parties would have ensured that Dak Tai Knew that a fine-particle product was in the offing, and paced its purchases with that in mind.
Now if the business were hamburgers or peanuts, WAK could sensibly have stood its ground at stuck to the original K99F product. The kaolin business is the exact opposite of any mass-market business like hamburgers and most bulk ores. It is essentially a bespoke business, and well known for the closeness of the parties, so we should not expect WAK to behave like a peanut vendor. The smart thing to do is to get ever closer to Dak Tai Trading, which is owned by Stanco International, a substantial Asian company. When in the recent webinar Andrew Sorensen said that the halo effect of supplying existing customers who were well known for being selective, and demanding, that, IMO, would have been a reference to Stanco International.
