Russia: at the International Conference of Russian refractories and metallurgical workers held this year, the report of the "alternative import scheme for refractory industry" issued by the anti-corrosion company of bolovic refractory company, which introduces the current situation of the refractory industry in Russia. He believes that for refractories, the development from fixed products to amorphous refractories (mainly refractory castables) is the trend. The use of amorphous refractory can not only increase the lining life of traditional metallurgical equipment such as blast furnace, ladle and tundish, but also reduce the amount of work before the furnace and improve the lining speed. The obvious progress in this area is the production and application of andalusite products, and its application scope has been extended to cement rotary kiln, blast furnace and hot blast furnace.
The future development of refractory materials mainly includes the following aspects: in the aspect of uncertain refractory, it is mainly refractory castable, which is used for the lining of blast furnace (spray repair technology), iron ditch of blast furnace outfield, lining of ladle and ladle, external treatment equipment of molten steel furnace, heat exchanger of circulating ring outside dry cement kiln, and heat insulation material and refractory for repair. In the aspect of fixed refractory, new clay bricks and high aluminum bricks with high technical potential are produced, such as lining materials for some areas of cement kilns, flow steel bricks, firebricks for blast furnace and hot blast furnace, red pillar brick for blast furnace and hot blast furnace, products for anode roasting furnace, clay and high aluminum heat insulation brick, etc.
In order to produce refractory products that meet the requirements of users, high purity mineral materials with low impurity content must be used. This kind of raw material is relatively lacking in Russia. Secondly, it should be said that such raw materials not only need refractory industry, but also need, even more urgent, in neighboring industries. The main reason for the price increase is the lack of supply, the exhaustion of old mines and the absence of new development mines, which has deepened this shortage. Russia lacks high-quality raw materials and chemical additives for refractory production, so it must be imported from abroad. Refractory manufacturers should make up for the short plates of raw materials, some of which rely on the flow of raw materials, on the one hand, expand the list of alternative materials and their suppliers. However, due to the special process requirements for refractory raw materials, this measure sometimes fails to work together.
The basic development direction of Russian refractory market is inseparable from the international development trend: the production of indefinite refractory develops at a certain growth rate. First, castable materials have produced innovative refractory products. The use of these refractories in the lining of thermal equipment can guarantee the improvement of technical and economic indexes. The production strategy of the enterprise depends on the prediction of the development of refractory products and services markets in Russia and CIS countries. Further modernization and transformation of existing process, priority should be given to the development of new and customer demand products and services, and the establishment of flexible production line, so that it can adjust production according to user orders, can produce small batch products as well as large-scale products, develop their own raw material base, including the utilization of old mines, promotion of energy saving technology, etc. Owning the enterprise's own technology and production improvement center is the key factor to success in the process of innovation and promotion. Its task is to research and produce new refractory products and provide technical and technological support during the whole cycle of the products.
Australia: in Australia, ausmag, a subsidiary of korab resources, a representative of the refractory industry, is working to commercialize Winchester magnesite. Winchester magnesite is only 60 kilometers away from Darwin port in northern Australia. The mineral resources reserve of the company is estimated to contain 16.6 million tons of magnesium carbonate and 43.2% of magnesium oxide. Korab reported on the latest feasibility study results, with the main purpose of developing Winchester project into direct mineral mining operations.
The study shows that in the 12 years of the project, if the price of magnesium carbonate in magnesite is fixed at $105 per ton, it will generate pretax income of $61600 million to US $640.2 million. In addition, capital expenditure is estimated to be reduced to $2.4 million to $2.5 million. These results are based on a conceptual mine, which is produced at different levels of mine production: 370000 tons per year, 750000 tons per year and 1 million tons per year. Korab has held talks with three potential contractors and terminated an initial framework agreement for 300000 tons of annual procurement in five years in march2018, which is immediately considered to be below the current market procurement level and is looking forward to better transactions. Although it is normal to calcine magnesium (so that no tons of water is transported) near the resources, it is not a normal time. Several companies have preferred to ship them to other locations for high temperature processing.
Serbia: as we all know, China is the main source of magnesium sand in the world. However, the supply shortage of magnesia in China caused by the recent ban on explosive and environmental protection has failed to meet the needs of global customers. Some European customers have found that there are several potential sources, such as the intention of Serbian producers to re-produce magnesia, which needs further verification.
Turkey: demirellermininga, headquartered in Mersin, has been producing bauxite for cement and slag regulation markets since 2002. The company operates a magnesite, and is planning to produce heavy burned magnesia, and has purchased a rotary kiln.
India: there are more than 100 refractory production enterprises in India, 14 of which are large enterprises, 33 are medium-sized ones, and the rest have relatively small refractory production, belonging to small enterprises. India's steel industry demands 75 percent of refractory production. Due to the difference of the technological level of each steel plant, the consumption of per ton steel refractory in India is about 8-10kg on average, but in some old steel enterprises, the per ton steel consumption of refractory reaches 15kg.
According to the statistics of the Indian refractory Association, the demand for refractory materials in India increased by 10.5% in 2013-2014. India's refractory outlook has attracted many major international refractory companies, including caddie and kanos. In 2015, caddley launched a third production plant in India, which has an annual capacity of 50000 tons of andalusite. Kanos India alumina is a subsidiary of French high alumina cement producer in India, which has established its first plant with an annual capacity of 30000 tons.
The characteristics of Refractory Market in India: the market capacity of refractory is about 2 million tons, the effective utilization rate of refractory is 60% - 70%, and the annual growth rate of the market is 8% - 10%. It is estimated that by 2025, India will have a steel output of 300 million tons. At that time, if the consumption of 12kg per ton of steel refractory is calculated, 3.6 million tons of refractory will be needed. If 10kg of refractory is consumed per ton of steel, 3million tons of refractory will be needed. According to the consumption of 9kg per ton of steel refractory, 2.7 million tons of refractory will be required.
India has developed new technologies, including: the penetration of SiO2 nano powder into the corundum products, the use of MgO based magnesia spinel brick on the kiln lining; SiC in sintered corundum brick and refractory castable; and the introduction of nano powder additives and the preparation of complex shape products by 3D printing. The nano materials are used in the magnesia carbon refractories, which can reduce the internal stress in the products, compensate the thermal expansion of the refractories and improve the high temperature corrosion resistance. For example, adding a small amount of (~2%) zirconia nanopowder to dolomite refractories can improve its thermal shock resistance and erosion resistance. The life of the magnesia chrome refractory was improved significantly after adding iron oxide nano powder. High density silica brick was developed because SiC and TiO2 were added to the ingredients. The basic refractory coating with cordierite and the inner lining of ladle and tundish with aluminum silicate fiber insulation have been widely used in many metallurgical enterprises in India.
India produces mullite from sillimanite sand, which is mined by trimex near the coastline of AndhraPradesh. Two kinds of mullite aggregate with density were prepared by using the sillimanite sand. One is mullite aggregate with SiO2 glass phase formed by the decomposition of sillimanite, and the other is to make mullite by adding alumina to make sillimanite change. The technology is characterized by fine grinding and pressing of sillimanite sand, and then sintering at 1600 ℃ for 2h. ZnO is contained in the ingredient, and the dense mullite can be obtained by adding ZnO. The mullite is used to produce low cement castable. The castable has good plasticity, the best hardening time and drying curve. Because of the small amount of glass phase in sillimanite, mullite aggregate has high thermal impact resistance. Trimex has established the world's largest silicon line production plant with an annual output of 70000 tons. At the same time, the ashapura group in India is similar to the above companies in Australia, which revealed at the irefcon18 meeting that it is assessing the development of "self selling mines" of high-quality magnesium mines outside India to import raw materials into Indian processing plants for calcination or electrofusion.
UAE: according to nonferrous. Com, Xinhua and the state news agency WAM reported Sunday that it is expected to officially start refining aluminum business in the first half of 2019. Emirates' non oil industry company, Emirates Global Aluminum Corporation (EGA), received 61450 tons of bauxite supplies from the Republic of Guinea, West Africa, on Sunday, which will be used in the aluminum smelters under construction at altawelah aluminum plant. It is reported that guinea will provide 5 million tons of bauxite to the UAE every year once the UAE smelter is fully operational.
"Alumina smelting will become an emerging industrial activity in the UAE, so the transportation of bauxite is the first in China," said abdullakablban, general manager and chief executive officer of EGA. More than 13000 people are currently building aluminum smelters, one of the industrial buildings currently invested by the UAE, costing $3.3 billion. Earlier this month, EGA has completed the construction of an bauxite storage warehouse. The warehouse has the capacity to store 450000 tons of bauxite. The company's taweelah aluminum smelter is expected to have an annual capacity of about 2 million tons / year.
Jamaica: with the influence of the US imposed on steel and aluminum tariffs gradually expanded, Jamaican foreign trade minister kaminajohnsonsmith said that the export of Jamaican bauxite was unaffected. Since June 1, the United States has imposed 25 per cent and 10 per cent tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, respectively. But Jamaica neither produces nor exports steel and aluminum, mainly in bauxite and alumina.
At a press conference at the Ministry of foreign trade on Tuesday, Smith said that the current export of bauxite to the United States accounts for more than 75 percent of Jamaica's production, but according to the caribbeanbasininitiative, Jamaican bauxite exports have tax immunity. However, she also stressed that although the trade dispute exists in the United States and China, the EU, Canada and Mexico, it is not sure whether it will have no impact on the alumina export of Jamaican aluminum plant. At the same time, the Ministry of foreign trade will continue to follow up trade war and maintain high concern to the main alumina exporting countries of Jamaican aluminum plant.
Austria: on June 26, 2018, Vienna, Austria, rhimagnesita, leader of global durable products, systems and services, announced today that it will invest more than 20 million euros to restart the dolomite plant in Chizhou, Anhui Province, China, to increase investment in China market, which is of strategic significance to rhimagnesita. This is part of a decisive move to ease the pressure on the supply of raw materials in the global refractory industry and to increase the supply of raw materials to global customers.
Chizhou production base has large dolomite and raw material production lines and high-quality dolomite production facilities. At present, we have successfully run the brick plant, and Chizhou brick factory is planned to be put into production again in early 2019. The dolomite plant will then be back in operation by the end of 2019. The investment will eventually create up to 250 jobs. "Last year, RHI and magnesita merged because of the effective use of growth potential and become the global refractory industry leader, including China and other Asian countries," said stefanborkas, chief executive of rhimagnesita. After analyzing the global supply of refractory raw materials and our own production and supply chain, we took decisive and rapid action to invest more than 20 million euros in Chizhou production base in China, further consolidating our leading global market position. After the investment is completed, rhimagnesita is able to provide our customers with the dolomite resources that are fully integrated in the world and provide dual procurement options. "
"Significant investment in China is another important strategic measure for us to enhance competitiveness and supply security. This initiative will improve our integration of raw materials and enhance our unique position in the industry. Through this investment, we can shorten the product delivery cycle of Asian customers and increase the supply to North American, European and Asian customers through local resources. This will also enhance our position and capabilities in this strategically attractive market over the long term. "
Significant investments are made to address the global shortage of raw materials; the refractory industry as a whole is currently facing a range of challenges, especially in the supply of basic raw materials. The increasingly strict environmental regulations in China have closed local factories, which leads to the shortage of magnesite and dolomite, and the sharp rise in the market price of raw materials, and the supply is not guaranteed. The development of these conditions forces the product to change from magnesite based production to dolomite based production. The stainless steel production at the highest level in history has further increased the demand for refractory products, which makes all market participants face the huge challenge of raw material supply.
Through investment in Chizhou, rhimagnesita can ensure long-term production cost assurance. While 90 percent of the other local dolomite producers have not benefited from the huge advantages of their own raw material supply. Rhimagnesita will provide a comprehensive and integrated dolomite production in China. Chizhou dolomite mine is one of the best mines in China, and it is located in Anhui Province, and is very close to the largest important customer and steel producer of rhimagnesita.
Marcoolszewsky, President of China for rhimagnesita, said customers would benefit from the investment: "it is important to increase the supply capacity of our own raw materials, which will not only help us ensure the supply safety, but also provide consistent high-quality products. We believe that our customers in China and other Asian countries will enjoy shorter supply routes and better customer service. "
The investment will create more than 250 jobs for Chizhou brick and raw material mines. In the planning and start-up stage, internationally renowned dolomite experts led by the Chinese team will gather here to ensure the success of the project.
