SiC pay: : Silicon carbide producers target higher value applications in tough market

• Autores: Liz Gyekye
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 578, 2015 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Diciembre)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • China, which produces the most steel and iron globally, is the largest consumer of SiC refractory products, followed by Europe, North America and Japan. There are no official figures detailing how much SiC China uses, but according to market research group, Reportlinker, the country contributed around 80% of global SiC capacity last year. From January to November of 2014, China exported 289,800 tonnes SiC, Reportlinker said.

    Commenting on demand, [Laurent Tellier] says that it is difficult to give a single assessment of the SiC market, given the variety of industries Saint-Gobain serves. "In the short term, it is publicly known that the iron and steel industry is facing some challenges. SiC, especially if you highly engineer it, is a material with a great performance and some development potential." CUMI's [K Srinivasan] noted that newer processing methods, controlled atmosphere firing, investment and high energy costs also pose challenges for the SiC sector. According to Tellier, "like any sensitive product (...), strict procedures to qualify new SiC suppliers and control the quality of the existing ones are key to guarantee a world-class stable performance in our customer applications for our finished products."