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The EU urgently must classify a substance used to line furnaces and kilns for making cement, glass and metal as a important uncooked materials or provides will grow to be hostage to China, the world’s greatest producer of high-end industrial ceramics has warned.
Stefan Borgas, chief govt of London-listed RHI Magnesita, advised the Monetary Occasions that whereas magnesite is important to fundamental chemical processes underlying Europe’s industrial base, its absence from a listing of strategically necessary supplies has disincentivised homegrown manufacturing.
Magnesite is used to make refractories, supplies that enable furnaces to deal with extraordinarily excessive temperatures above 1,200C. Europe imports most of its magnesite from China, which controls two-thirds of worldwide manufacturing.
“We have enough magnesite in Europe that we could secure supply to the European heavy industries,” Borgas mentioned, including that EU important supplies designation helps to spice up funding within the mining and processing of lithium, nickel and different metals the place China additionally dominates provide.
“For sure it gives a boost to the European production of these materials,” Borgas mentioned. “We have natural resources [but] Europe has neglected its mining capabilities over the last 50 years.”
The decision by Vienna-based RHI Magnesita is an indication of how far China’s world surge in industrial exports in response to faltering home demand is extending past metal and different extensively used metals to lesser recognized however equally important supplies.
The corporate, which has a listed subsidiary in India and a market worth of about £1.5bn, is battling falling costs for refractories as Chinese language producers flip to exports to soak up extra capability. Factories in India are additionally investing in new refractory manufacturing because the nation pursues its steelmaking ambitions.
In an effort to spice up its provides of the commodities required to make clear applied sciences resembling batteries and wind generators, the EU has listed 16 merchandise together with nickel, lithium and cobalt as “strategic” as a part of a Important Uncooked Supplies Act that units targets for his or her home extraction, processing and recycling.
Borgas argued that magnesite ought to be added to this listing as a result of it additionally underpins the processing and recycling of greater than half of those “strategic” minerals.
He mentioned that together with it on the listing would additionally assist corporations cluster collectively to spend money on decarbonising high-emitting processes. The manufacturing of 1 tonne of magnesia from magnesite emitted about 1.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide, Borgas mentioned.
“Being on the strategic raw material list helps to support investment in totally new technologies. [This is] uncharted territory, which for any single company would be very risky. But as a cluster, this could become very interesting.”
The worldwide provide of refractories is working at about 40 per cent above demand however the provide chains for uncooked supplies resembling magnesite have gotten precarious, in accordance with RHI Magnesita.
“For every building material for modern society . . . you need refractories,” Borgas mentioned. “You need this ceramic insulation layer inside the furnace in order to protect the plants and the people from this hot material.
“The Chinese have invested into this based on their resources and — very reliably, actually — supply the world . . . Europe and every other continent should take care that they at least use what they have,” he mentioned.
The EU ought to replace the important uncooked supplies listing by Could 24 2027, in accordance with the act. Any materials should be assessed earlier than it may be added, an EU official mentioned.
