Out of the melting pot: : A year of change in refractories

• Autores: Industrial Minerals
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 604, 2018 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Septiembre)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • After a year of reorganization and changing narratives in the refractories industry – from significant M&A activity to raw material price spikes, and from booming end-market demand to uncertainties in global trade – Industrial Minerals correspondent Myles McCormick takes stock of a changed landscape for companies operating in the sector. [...]stable raw materials supply and prices have given way to extreme volatility, and a sluggish steel industry has roared into gear, pushing up refractory demand exponentially – although threats of large-scale trade disruption loom large in the background. Another raw material input that has seen price increases – although for very different reasons – is lithium, the price of which has soared in recent years due mainly to demand for its use in electric car batteries. “Driven by the growth in steel production, the Indian refractory market is expected to expand significantly and to fuel the local market demand for high-quality refractory solutions,” Christoph Jandl, senior vice president for technical marketing, said.