The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami which hit northern Japan on 11 March marked the country’s worst disaster since the Second World War, causing widespread destruction of houses, industry and infrastructure and leaving more than 20,000 dead or missing.
Subsequent power shortages left their mark on Japan’s manufacturing industries as authorities struggled to prevent reactors overheating at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The most severely-hit prefectures were Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima on the north-east coast, although power shortages had a widespread impact in Japan’s industrial heartland further south.
Japan’s industrial minerals industry is relatively small (see p.7), but the impact on the downstream industries of the world’s third biggest economy had an immediate effect on global mineral markets.
Calcium carbonate
Several calcium carbonate plants were among the destruction caused by the tsunami, industry sources told...