Henan province in central China has launched a new round or ouput cuts for the refreactories and steel industries to run fron November, 15, 2018, to March 15, 2019.

Dalmia-OCL hails an increase in its clean refractory capacity after buying German GSB group.

Indian refractory producer Dalmia-OCL has expanded into Europe with the purchase of Germany specialty refractory manufacturer GSB Group GmbH, increasing its stake in the clean refractories market.

The transaction was valued at €15 million ($17 million), Fastmarkets IM has learned.

According to Dalmia-OCL the investment will be funded partially by internal accruals and debt.

«This acquisition will […] make us one of the specialized manufacturers of refractories for cleaner steel production, a focus area for Indian steel makers,» Dalmia-OCL chief executive officer Sameer Nagpal.

GSB Group operates two production sites at Bochum in Germany and Bhilai in India. Dalmia- OCL refused to share the installed capacity of these two acquired plants.

In 2018, Dalmia-OCL signed a joint venture with Slovenian refractory company Seven to produce advanced monolithics in India. Dalmia-OCL has a 51% stake in this joint venture.

Dalmia-OCL is India’s second-largest refractory company with a production capacity of 250,000 tonnes per year.
Currently, Dalmia-OCL operates five refractory production plants (four in India and one in China) with an installed capacity of 250,000 tpy of refractory products.

The company expects to close the current financial year (April 2018- March 2019) with a revenue of 8 billion rupees ($111 million).

In its domestic market, Dalmia-OCL has been working on readjusting its product portfolio by focusing on the production of high performance bricks for cement kilns and special quality bricks for high purity steel.
The company is also looking for alternatives for magnesia bricks to hedge against uncertainties in raw material availability.

Chinese magnesia prices have tightened over the long term, although prices are down from the their 2018 peak.
Fastmarkets’ February 5 price assessment for fused magnesia,basis 97% MgO, Ca:Si 2:1, lump, fob China, was $1,250-1,350 per tonne. This was up from $440-445 per tonne in July 2017, but down from $1,600-1,800 per tonne at the start of 2018.

Magnesia prices out of China have surged in 2018 following severe environmental restrictions. Carrie Shi, Fastmarkets IM market reporter, looks over the year of shutdowns and the effect on prices.

Slowing EU steel demand, global overcapacity and weaker worldwide demand could become a major threat to European steel market stability.

The growth in apparent steel consumption in the EU will slow to only 0.5% in 2019, followed by a 1.2% rise in 2020, European steel association Eurofer said on Thursday January 31.

Europe’s apparent steel consumption was forecast to reach 164 million tonnes in 2019 and 166 million tonnes in 2020.

These numbers are «less than one-third of the compound annual growth rate of apparent steel consumption over the period 2014-18,» according to Eurofer.

Development of EU steel demand – in combination with global overcapacity, slowing worldwide demand and increasing protectionism – might become a major threat to the stability of the European market.

Although the European Commission (EC) announced its final decision in a safeguard case concerning a number of steel product categories on February 1, Eurofer is concerned that the measures might not be be enough to protect the domestic market.

Definitive measures were set in the form of partially country-specific tariff rates and quotas for 26 steel product categories.

Eurofer estimates that the EU’s apparent steel consumption rose by 2.6% year-on-year to 163 million tonnes in 2018.

However, European mills have not fully benefited from the rise in consumption, with steel import increasing by 12.3% year-on-year. European producers barely gained from domestic growth, it added, with shipments to the domestic market picking up by only 0.6% year-on-year.

«The sharp increase in imports in the second half of 2018 is proof that, in spite of the justified imposition of preliminary safeguard measures by the [European] Commission last July, the EU market is still under siege,» the director general of Eurofer, Axel Eggert, said.

«Market access to other regions has been blocked by protectionist measures in those places, leading to a continued diversion of steel to the EU market,» he added.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for domestic hot-rolled coil (HRC) in Northern Europe was €520-530 ($597-608) per tonne ex-works at the end of 2018, down by 5.83% since the beginning of July that year.

Domestic prices in Europe moved down on slow trading and on tough competition from imports, particularly material originating from Turkey. Turkey has redirected significant volumes of material to Europe from the US market due to that country’s Section 232 measures.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for HRC imported into Northern Europe was €480-490 per tonne cfr main ports in late December, down by 12.61% since the beginning of the third quarter.

«The diversionary trend [in the EU steel market] is expected to continue in 2019, especially because the safeguard quota will be increased by 5% in February and by another 5% in July,» Eggert said.

«This ‘relaxation’ could occur even as 2019 EU steel demand is forecast to be flat,» he added, «and [means] even greater uncertainty for steel producers.»

China’s mineral supply squeeze continues to challenge refractory producers.

A range of factors arising in 2017 and spilling into 2018 significantly compounded the shortage of key refractory (and other) mineral exports from China vital to the world’s refractory manufacturing sector.