Displaying items by tag: RHI Magnesita

Austria: RHI Magnesita reported revenues of Euro3.3bn throughout 2022, up by 30% year-on-year from 2021 levels. The refractories supplier's raw materials and shipping costs rose, but it was able to offset the rise by increasing its prices. The company said that this generated Euro600m in additional revenues, enabling it to maintain profitability 'through a challenging economic cycle.' It noted global volatility and uncertainty, which it expects to continue into 2023, for which it forecast a full-year drop in global cement demand. It expects 'strong growth' in India to offset any resulting decline in its sales in other markets.

RHI Magnesita CEO Stefan Borgas said "I am pleased to report growing progress on our mergers and acquisitions strategy, with acquisitions in India, China, Türkiye and Europe agreed or completed during the year. Whilst the outlook for 2023 is more uncertain than prior years due to slowing demand for refractories and softer pricing in certain regions, RHI Magnesita is able to face these challenges in a much stronger condition as a result of the implementation of its strategic cost savings and sales strategies over the past four years."

Austria: RHI Magnesita has invested in Australia-based MCi Carbon as part of a long-term strategic cooperation agreement to research and develop technologies to decarbonise the production of refractories. MCi Carbon sells a mineral carbonation process that creates a range of low-carbon embodied materials, including calcium and magnesium carbonate by carbonating minerals in by-products of industrial processes. RHI Magnesita intends to use this process to reduce its Scope 1 emissions from mineral processing during its refractory production process.

Stefan Borgas, the chief executive officer of RHI Magnesita, said "This partnership could become a breakthrough towards decarbonising the industry. It fits seamlessly with RHI Magnesita's ambitious sustainability strategy." He added "We still have a long way to go but our early-stage investment and the clear intention of a long-term collaboration make this day so memorable. Together with the like-minded team from MCi we will pave the way for a greener industry."

So far, both companies have worked together on CO₂ mitigation studies, mineral carbonisation feedstock assessments and techno-economic analyses at RHI Magnesita's sites around the world. In a next step, the companies' joint efforts will focus on industrial scale-up, expected to start in 2024 with the set-up of a demonstration plant by MCi at Newcastle in Australia, supported by the Australian government.

India: RHI Magnesita has agreed to buy the India-based refractory business of Dalmia Bharat Refractories (DBR). The acquisition will take place via a share swap agreement in exchange for 27m shares in RHI Magnesita India. The Austria-based refractory manufacturer hopes to grow its presence in the Indian market and benefit from market synergies. DBR employs approximately 1200 people in India. It has a production capacity of over 300,000t/yr of refractory and operates five refractory plants and raw material sites. The acquisition will add production capacities in industrial regions in the south and west of India where RHI Magnesita currently has no assets. No completion date for the transaction has been disclosed.

Stefan Borgas, the chief executive officer of RHI Magnesita, said, “We see material financial and operational benefits from the addition of the Dalmia Bharat Refractories business to our existing network, which will enable us to increasingly serve our customers with a ‘local for local’ approach in India and offer a broader range of products, in particular in the Industrial segment, in which RHI Magnesita is currently under-represented. This transaction demonstrates our ability to continue to grow our business in India where the outlook for the refractory industry is strong, at a time when demand in other geographies is weakening.”

Europe: RHI Magnesita is heading a European Union Horizon project called ReSoURCE. The project seeks to develop a sensor-based refractory waste sorting and powder handling system. It involves academic partners in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Norway and the UK. The European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA) supplied Euro6m in funding for the study, while the UK government supplied Euro1m. Global refractory waste generation is currently 28Mt/yr.

RHI Magnesita chief executive officer Stefan Borgas said “On average, 60% of all spent refractories generated by refractory-consuming industries go to landfill, while only 30% are recycled. With the ReSoURCE project, we aim to increase it up to 75%. This means we can achieve significant savings of CO₂ emissions per annum. With this research project, we have the chance to make a difference in the world.”

Austria: Refractory producer RHI Magnesita increased its consolidated sales by 33% year-on-year to Euro1.6bn in the first half of 2022 from Euro1.2bn in the first half of 2021. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 37% to Euro245m from Euro 179m. Profit before tax rose by 14% year-on-year to Euro142m from Euro125m.

Looking forward to its full-year 2022 results, RHI Magnesita forecast unchanged earnings, based on ‘strong demand’ in the year to date and its order book for the second half of the year. It said that inflation and monetary policy responses, labour and energy market tightness and on-going supply chain disruption have impacted its global growth outlook. It will rely on price rises to maintain its margins, as well as on strategic cost saving initiatives.

Chief executive officer Stefan Borgas said “In the first half of 2022 we further demonstrated the benefits of prioritising customer deliveries in an environment of continued supply chain volatility. Our investment in inventories to ensure our customers remain supplied with essential refractories has underlined the importance of supply reliability and has enabled us to simultaneously increase prices and gain market share. Following major investments in our production network, a reduction in our selling, general and administrative expenses and progress on our sales strategies, the group is in a strong position to maintain its leadership position in the refractory industry and to navigate future challenges.”

Austria: RHI Magnesita’s customers can now rely on Environmental Indicators on all of its products’ Technical Data Sheets to check their CO₂ emissions. The indicators state the CO₂ equivalent emissions per tonne of each product. The supplier calculated the figures in line with ISO standards under on-going external supervision.

Chief sustainability officer Gustavo Franco said “One of RHI Magnesita’s main targets is to significantly reduce emissions over the next few decades, with the long-term goal of achieving net-zero operations in all areas of the company. It is clear that a solid basis for sustainable decisions and developments can only be achieved by creating a valid audited database.”

Austria: RHI Magnesita says it has released CO₂ emissions data for all of its 200,000 products. Technical Data Sheets now include a field ‘Environmental Indicators’ in which the CO₂ equivalent emission of one metric ton of the product is listed. The calculation method for these indicators is developed with and supervised on an on-going basis by an external organisation under the principles of ISO standards. All greenhouse gases ‘cradle-to-gate’, from raw material extraction to production to packaging to gate are considered in these CO₂ footprint calculations.

Chief sustainability officer Gustavo Franco said "This project marks an important milestone towards a green transformation. Thus, one of RHI Magnesita's main targets is to significantly reduce emissions over the next few decades, with the long-term goal of achieving net-zero operations in all areas of the company. It is clear, that a solid basis for sustainable decisions and developments can only be achieved by creating a valid audited database."

Austria/Germany: RHI Magnesita and Horn & Co. Group have announced the consolidation of their recycling activities in Europe under Horn & Co. RHIM Minerals Recovery. The new subsidiary aims to increase the production, use and offering of secondary raw materials for the European refractory industry. The partners say that this will place the new entity at the forefront of the circular economy for customers in cement and other process industries. At the onset, Horn & Co. RHIM Minerals Recovery will process more than 150,000t/yr of secondary raw materials.

RHI Magnesita says that it can save 1.8t of CO2 for every tonne of recycled material used in its refractory production. It now expects to achieve its goal of 10% recycled materials ahead of its previously stipulated target date of 2025. It said that this marks an important step towards achieving a 15% reduction in CO₂ emissions by 2025.

CEO Stefan Borgas said “By increasing our focus in this key area, we will make a significant contribution to global climate protection. We will conserve natural resources while at the same time expanding our business.” He added “With the combination of the recycling activities, RHI Magnesita and Horn & Co. Group become the driving force of circular economy in the refractory industry. Going forward, refractory users will benefit from increasing circular economy solutions included in our full line service contracts and customers of Horn & Co. RHIM Minerals Recovery will be able to source sustainable and high-quality raw materials.”

Austria: RHI Magnesita says that customer demand and sales volumes to above pre-pandemic levels have driven revenue growth in 2021. It added that, at the same time, unprecedented supply chain disruptions resulted in higher freight, energy and purchased raw materials costs. Its adjusted revenue grew by 12.9% year-on-year to Euro2.55bn in 2021 from Euro2.26bn in 2020. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 7.7% to Euro280m from Euro260m.

Stefan Borgas, chief executive officer of RHI Magnesita, said, “This has been a strong year of progress for RHI Magnesita in challenging conditions. Customer demand recovered much faster than was anticipated, creating an unprecedented strain on global supply chains and significant increases in costs and logistics lead times. Despite logistics difficulties and market volatility we have progressed the strategic investments which will deliver long term growth and margin improvement. We enter 2022 with restored margins and ready to build further on our sustainability and technology leadership position in the global refractory industry.”

The group said that merger and acquisition progress has been accelerated in the reporting year with an agreement to buy Turkey-based Sormas Refrakter and the establishment of a new joint venture in Chongqing, China to widen the product range for cement customers in the region.

Finally, RHI Magnesita reported that it has 63 staff based in Russia and Ukraine but no refractory production sites. Approximately 3.4% of group revenues were from the Commonwealth of Independent States region in 2021. It said that this business would be impacted by economic sanctions but that the main financial effects for the group as a whole were expected from higher energy costs.

Austria: RHI Magnesita is celebrating the tenth anniversary of first opening its Training Centre Cement in Leoben, Styria. The centre supports the regional cement industry with RHI Magnesita’s knowledge and experience of refractory bricks and mixes installation. It has held more than 50 instructive courses.

Centre leader Peter Steinkellner said “We are very pleased that more than 550 professionals from various countries have attended our trainings in the past 10 years.”