Displaying items by tag: Refractory
RHI Magnesita acquires Missouri Refractories
31 January 2020US: RHI Magnesita has acquired Missouri Refractories for an undisclosed sum. The refractory producer operates a plant at Pevely, Missouri. It produces over 400 high-quality monolithic mixes, which serve industries, including cement, lime, steel and glass.
“With its more than 45 years of experience in fulfilling the needs of demanding, highly loyal and satisfied customers, Missouri Refractories perfectly fits into RHI Magnesita’s strategy to strengthen our position in the North American refractory market,” said Stefan Borgas, chief executive officer (CEO) of RHI Magnesita.
Jon K Tabor to retire from Allied Mineral Products
29 January 2020US: Jon K Tabor, the Chairman Emeritus of Allied Mineral Products, is to retire at the end of March 2020. He celebrates 50 years with Allied on 16 February 2020. He will remain on Allied’s board of directors following his retirement.
Tabor started a 65-year career in the refractories industry in 1955 when he started working for Norton Company (Saint-Gobain), in Worcester, Massachusetts. He joined Allied as Sales Manager in 1970, when Allied was a small company. Tabor helped transform Allied from a two-man partnership into a multi-national corporation with almost 1000 employees in 25 countries, and manufacturing facilities in eight countries and four US states. His Allied career has included the roles of Sales Manager, Vice President of Sales, President, chief executive officer (CEO), Chairman, and most recently, Chairman Emeritus. Notably, he led the transformation of Allied to an employee owned (ESOP) company in 1986.
Tabor attended the United States Merchant Marine Academy, served in the US Army and Army Reserves; graduated from Alfred University in 1955 and earned an MBA from Northeastern University in 1962.
India: France-based Imerys has announced the acquisition of calcium silicate producer Hysil by its subsidiary Calderys Indian Refractories from CK Birla Group for Euro10.1m. SeeNews has reported that the expansion to Imerys’ Indian operations is aimed at securing lower prices for raw materials for use in high temperature insulation in various industries, especially the cement sector.
RHI Magnesita plans Dolomite Resource Centre Europe
07 January 2020Austria: RHI Magnesita has published details of a planned raw materials plant in Austria. The company will spend Euro40m in the construction of the Dolomite Resource Centre Europe for the processing of raw local dolomite into sintered dolomite for use in refractory products at Hochfilz in the state of Tyrol. State Governor Günther Platter and French ambassador to Austria François Saint-Paul joined local folkloric figures Krampus and Saint Nikolas in breaking ground at the site of the future plant, which will be the source of dolomite for all RHI Magnesita European operations from 2021. The plant is part of a raft of projects totalling Euro300m in additional investments by the Austria-based refractory products manufacturer in 2020.
Allied Minerals opens second Chinese refractory production plant
02 January 2020China: Allied Minerals has commissioned a refractory production plant in Tianjin, 5km away from its existing plant in the city in Hebei province. Former Allied Minerals corporate vice president Tom Gibson explained: “We’ve built more than manufacturing plants and offices. We’ve built bridges.” The new plant will increase Allied Minerals’ supply of refractory products to cement producers in and around the city, which is located near the coast 100km from Beijing.
RHI Magnesita announces additional upgrade investment of Euro300m
25 December 2019Brazil: Refractory products supplier RHI Magnesita has announced a raft of investments totalling Euro300m in addition to its annual Euro120m maintenance expenditure. The investment will cover projects in all its operating regions, including a new raw materials plant in Austria and ‘significant’ expansions to its Contagem complex in Brazil and Cuttack non-basic brick plant in India. It further stated that it will ‘build secondary raw material sorting, cleaning and production capabilites’ to absorb waste streams.
Dalmia Cement to merge refractory business with Dalmia Refractories
18 November 2019India: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) and Dalmia Refractories plan to merge their refractory businesses. The subsidiaries of Dalmia Bharat have approved schemes of arrangement to consolidate under a single company known as Dalmia OCL. Dalmia OCL in turn will be held by a holding company known as Dalmia Bharat Refractories. The intention of the merger process is to create a single refractory company of ‘significant’ size, to simplify the corporate structure and to achieve economies of scale.
RHI Magnesita enters trial production at Tangi refractory plant
15 November 2019India: The leading global supplier of cement kiln refractories, has produced its first test batch of magnesia carbon bricks (MCBs) for use in cement kilns at its 18,000Mt/yr Tangi plant near Cuttack in the state of Odisha. The company acquired the fully-equipped plant in August 2019 for Euro5.5m and has said production will be supported by a ‘new state-of-the-art world-class research and development centre currently under construction in Bhiwadi’ in serving the needs of the regional cement industry.
RHI Magnesita to invest Euro57.1m in new refractory plant
16 October 2019Brazil: RHI Magnesita is planning a Euro57.1m upgrade to its Contagem complex in Minas Gerais, to include a new plant and 15,000m2 of office space. Francisco Carrara, president of RHI Magnesita South America, emphasised the importance of the Brazilian cement sector to the company, with operations in the country “representing 75% of Magnesita’s activities on the continent.”
US: Allied Minerals has completed a US$11m upgrade to its Pell City plant in Alabama. The refractories manufacturer has been working on the project since mid-2018. The company originally operated two sites in Alabama at Anniston and Pell City. After it purchased Riverside Refractories in 2017 it decided to focus on the Pell City unit.