Better mining policy is the need of the hour to encourage the segment, says Chairman, IREFCON NEW DELHI, MARCH 11

Considered to be a ‘dying industry’ till recently, domestic refractory makers are suddenly finding their place under the sun, thanks to the spurt in prices of Chinese imports.

Earlier, apart from finished products, nearly 40 per cent of the raw materials for refractory bricks — such as magnesite, graphite, fused and calcined alumina and high grade clays — were imported from China. However, with China clamping down on mining and introducing stringent pollution control norms, the supply of raw materials has been impacted. This has shifted the focus on to domestic refractory makers, said Parmod Sagar, Chairman, India International Refractories Congress (Irefcon).

Refractory products are vital in all high-temperature processes in the making of metals, cement, glass and ceramics. The steel industry is one of the biggest consumers of refractory products, accounting for nearly 60-70 per cent of the total production.

“Till about a year back refractory was considered a dying industry, everyone was ignoring it. But this China issue has brought a change in the way refractory is viewed as a product for steel and cement making,” Sagar told BusinessLinerecently at an Irefcon conference.

Despite refractory being a key component for the steel industry, it has hardly found mention in the government’s steel policy, he said.

Price surge

According to Sagar, while the price of refractory products has increased by 30-50 per cent, that of the raw materials surged by 10-150 per cent across various categories.

The ₹6,500-crore domestic refractory industry, which has not taken any ‘significant’ price hike in the last three to five years, has managed to pass it on to its consumers thus far. However, any further price hike would be difficult to manage, he said.

Need for mining policy

To encourage players to set up plants in India, the Centre should focus on supporting the refractory industry with a better mining policy, and allocate funds for research and development of raw material in India, he said. There is also a need to bring down import duty on raw material for refractory to zero so as to encourage domestic production.

REUNIONES JUNIO OVIEDO HOTEL AYRE OVIEDO.

Martes 12 de Junio de 2018:

16.00 Reunión Comité Técnico (Solo asociados)

16.00 Reunión Comité Montadores (Solo asociados)

18.00 Coffee Break (Solo asociados)

18.30 Junta Directiva (Solo asociados)

21.00 Salida Hall Hotel para Cena apertura Congreso en el Real Club de Tenis

Miércoles 13 de Junio de 2018:

8.30- Entrega de acreditaciones

9.00-9.15 – Apertura del Congreso. Bienvenida del Presidente de Anfre

9.15- 10.00 – Ponencia de Unesid-“ La industria siderúrgia española. Mercado Nacional y entorno internacional”. Alfonso Hidalgo

10.00- 10.35 – Ponencia de Midegasa- “ Silica fume grade for Application in Refractory. Properties and advantages”. Christian Lengdobler.

10.35- 11.10 – Ponencia de Cementos Molins- “ Soluciones y tendencias refractarias sostenibles con aluminatos de calcio”. Christian Iglesis

11.10- 11.40 – Coffee Break

11.40- 12.15 – Ponencia Informed. “ Year of the Dog: is its bark worse than its bite? China´s refractory minerals outlook”. Mike O´Driscoll.

12.15- 12.50 – Ponencia de Imerys. “Improvements for a better rehability of low Cement castables.” Fabien Simonin

12.50- 13.25 – Ponencia de Elkem. “EMSIL-DRY^TM: Hormigones de secado rápido , ventajas tanto para el fabricante de Refractarios como para los Usuarios finales.”Jordi Hernández.

13.25- 14.00 – Ponencia Arciresa.“Bauxstar 90. Una nueva Bauxita producida en España”. María F. Torío y Fernando López.

14.00- 15.30 – Comida

15.30- 16.15 – Ponencia de Oficemen .” La industria española del Cemento”. Ricardo López

16.15- 16.50 – Ponencia de IMCD España. “ Hormigones refractarios para aplicaciones industriales: aún tenemos margen para mejorar”. Adrián García

17.00 – 18.00/18.30 – Mesa redonda de Materias Primas. Cierre de Congreso

If ever there was a time to acknowledge and try to understand the significant influence of Chinese policies on refractory mineral supply to western markets that time is now. The upshot is thar 2017 will be remembered as the «Year of the Perfect», or perhaps… «Imperfect Storm» – depending on whether one is a Western refractory mineral producer/developer or a Western consumer of Chinese refractory minerals, respectively.

The exact knowledge of the material properties of refractories in the region of their, usual very high, application temperatures is the key to their successful application as well as to the development of new refractory materials. A particularly important question is the behaviour of a refractory against thermal shock and thermal cycling. While many techniques and standards deal with changes between high temperature and room temperature, the more realistic load is often the fast change between two high temperatures. In this work, we explain the capabilities of a new ThermoOptical measuring device called TOM_wave, which was developed for hot thermal shock and thermal cycling tests and determination of further high temperature properties of refractories.

Rising raw material costs for the production of brown and white fused alumina in China are expected to push prices higher in the coming weeks, while intensifying anti-pollution control in Henan province will further compound supply constraints.