"Ramp-up" meaning increasing tonnes of kaolin produced to plant capacity (the usually understood meaning) has not been slow, it has proceeded faster than planned. I do not know enough about the norms of the kaolin trading practices to know why sales have not quickened in step with production, but I suspect that it may be that when WAK had near-nothing to sell to new customers, it was not worth expending effort marketing to them, which would, in the absence of track record, only have obtained commitments at discount prices.
Kaolin is unlike iron and copper ore and coal - commodities with a high level of customer fungibility. Google "Investopedia fungibility" to learn the significance of that for traded commodities. Kaolin is a bespoke product that is generally sold to specification through distributors, who on-sell subject to the unique and tight specifications of end users. This lends itself to trust-based relationships between the parties, and building trust always takes time. Rio Tinto can load a ship with a known iron ore blend, and sell it on the iron-ore spot market, which style of business does not work for kaolin. That disadvantage is compensated for by the value of inter-party loyalty that is a trait of the kaolin market.
I have assumed that as WAK is eager to bring Stage 2 forward, Management must be confident that sales will follow, especially if WAK broadens the range of products on which it focuses. That would be K99S (a basic product), K99F (for fibreglass) and K99C (for ceramics) in the near term. I believe WAK will move into Stage 3 fairly quickly, and that has the potential to allow WAK to offer a basic paper-filler grade of kaolin initially, and expand into more specific and demanding paper-coating grades later. I write this because to get into the high-priced grades of marketing kaolin requires wet processing add-on steps to the K99 dry-processing, but that is something for a few years hence, IMO.
WAK Price at posting:
17.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
