China’s steel mills, which supply half of global output, churned out less steel in the first two months of the year, extending a decline amid government efforts to reduce reliance on manufacturing for growth.
Crude-steel production for the January-to-February period dropped 5.7 percent from a year earlier to 121.07 million metric tons, data published by the country’s statistics bureau Saturday showed. Steel products output fell 2.1 percent to 162.28 million tons.
Steel mills in China are battling losses and overcapacity as the nation transitions its economy to one fueled by consumption and services, from growth driven by manufacturing, and have seen their output fall off record highs in 2014. Steel output tends to drop before and during the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, which began Feb. 8 this year, before climbing after the break when manufacturing activity picks up.
January and February is a lull period for the steel industry, Huang Huiwen, an analyst at Shanghai Cifco Futures Co. in Shanghai, said before the figures were published. “We expect a recovery in March data as sentiment toward China’s economy and demand has improved.”
Annual steel output shrank 2.3 percent to 804 million tons in 2015, the first contraction since 1981. Steel consumption in China, which fell 5.4 percent last year, will drop a further 3 percent in 2016, according to estimates from the China Iron & Steel Association.
A recovery in steel output and consumption after the Lunar New Year holiday boosted demand for iron ore, powering prices higher, the China Iron & Steel Association said in a statement this month. Ore with 62 percent content delivered to Qingdao — the benchmark for the physical market — surged an unprecedented 19 percent in a single day on March 7 and ended the week at $57.09 a dry ton, according to Metal Bulletin Ltd.

El pasado día 29 de junio tuvo lugar en el Hotel Ayre de  Oviedo el VIII Congreso de Materiales, Maquinaria y Montaje de Refractarios. Congreso que resultó todo un éxito con casi 80 congresistas procedentes de distintos países.

El Congreso se abrió con una Espicha asturiana , donde además de charlar y degustar una variada  cena pudimos admirar el paisaje asturiano.

Los patrocinadores del Congreso, miembros de ANFRE y representantes de las patronales  de industrias siderúrgica y cementera fueron los encargados de realizar las ponencias. Se trataron temas de interés para  los refractarios y se habló, entre otros temas, de las materias primas electrofundidas y sinterizadas, las propiedades de los hormigones refractarios, los productos basados en partículas microesféricas, las chamotas y las  mullitas.

Destacar  la presencia de dos invitados de gran  relevancia dentro de su sector. D. Alfonso Hidalgo, Director de Estudios Económicos de Unesid, que abrió el Congreso con una charla sobre la situación de la industria siderurgica  y D. Ricardo López, Director de Relaciones Institucionales de Oficemen, que nos habló sobre la Industria del Cemento.

Una vez finalizadas las ponencias se realizó una mesa redonda de Materias Primas donde se llevó a cabo un intercambio de opiniones entre todos los congresistas.

Querríamos agradecer a todos los patrocinadores, que se citan a continuación, la ayuda prestada, una vez más.  Sin ellos los Congresos no serían posibles.

• IMCD ESPAÑA ESPECIALIDADES QUÍMICAS S.A
• CALUCEM – ARCIRESA
• KERNEOS ESPAÑA S.L.U
• GORKA CEMENT – MIDEGASA
• IMERYS
• ARCICHAMOTAS
• ELKEM IBERICA
• CEMENTOS MOLINS
• EXCLUSIVAS ENERGÉTICAS

Por último, pero no por eso menos importante, desde ANFRE queríamos agradecer a Fernando López de Arciresa su ayuda incondicional para la  realización y  éxito de este Congreso.

Os esperamos a todos en el próximo Congreso.

PRE congress 2016 in Krakow, Poland

The 63rd PRE congress took place in Krakow, Poland and was attended by over 80 participants from 13 European countries.
During the PRE Economic Committee and General Assembly, PRE members were updated on 2015 PRE production statistics and the different European policies currently being debated in the European institutions (such as the future of the Emissions Trading Scheme or the revision of the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive). Mr Dariusz Konieczny, Head of law and technology in the Polish Cement Association, gave a presentation on the Polish, Europe-an and world cement market.
Next year’s congress will take place from 7 to 9 June in Chester, UK, kindly organised by BCC, the British Ceramic Confederation.

PRE activities on Coal Tar Pitch, high temperature

The Coal Tar Pitch High Temperature (CTPHT) was recommended in September 2014 for inclusion in the Annex XIV of Reach, the so-called Authorisation List. It was followed by a public consultation to which PRE replied.

CTPHT is pending addition to the Authorisation list (Annex XIV), with a proposed La-test Application Date (LAD) of 21 Months. PRE has edited a position paper in order to defend a longer LAD. For the “intermediate use” for sliding gates, PRE experts on CTPHT have edited a technical gui-dance document, in order to have this use reco-gnised as an intermediate use (and thereby exempted from authorisation). An external review was conducted by the consultant Bipro. The propo-sals from different sectors will be examined by ECHA and the final technical guidance will be presented on the ECHA website.
For the uses that will not be covered by an exemp-tion, PRE has organised a workshop meeting on 22 June focused on the possible strategies for CTPHT Application for Authorisation (AfA). The companies are invited to develop their own strategy.

NEPSI 10th Anniversary and CMD update

The conference celebrating the 10th Anniver-sary of the NEPSI Agreement took place on 16 June. This event took place in the light of the recently proposed revision of the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive (CMD) proposing the inclusion of Respirable Crys-talline Silica (RCS). During the event, the Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Mrs Marianne Thyssen delivered a message by video, indicating the European Commission’s support to the NEPSI initiative and its recognition of the Agreement and good practices as an effective tool to implement the coming EU limit value on the ground. The NEPSI Employers, including Cerame-Unie, will have to secure this recognition of NEPSI as an implementation tool of the CMD during the next regulatory steps, the co-decision process between the European Parliament and the Council.

Ceramic BREF questionnaire

The current Ceramic Manufacturing Industry Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference document, the so-called Ceramic BREF, was published in 2007 and is going to be reviewed officially in 2017. The BREF has gai-ned more importance as it becomes, with the IED Directive, the legal base for the factory permits in the EU. To be prepared for this 2017 revision, the CU BREF Task Force needs a strategy, based on data linked to the emissions and abatements systems used in the ceramic production sites. A data collection is taking place be-tween 15 June and 15 August 2016 with the circulation of a CU BREF questionnaire. The national associations are involved in this exercise and translated versions of the questionnaires are being circulated to the facto-ries. It is important that for companies to take part in this data collection.

Short news and publications

 SPIRE brokerage event: On 15 June, the SPIRE brokerage event took take in Brussels. About 150 participants took part. In the morning session, representatives from the European Commission gave an update on the success rate of the 2016 calls and deadlines for the 2017 calls. In the afternoon, a series of project ideas for the 2017 calls were presented. The calls for 2017 are already known, they will be published officially end of July.
 Cumulative Cost Assessment (CCA): The CCA Mirror Group met on 20 June with the European Commission and consultants performing the CCA study. The consultants presented their sampling and data collection strategies as well as plan for next steps. Samples are to be composed of refractories’, wall and floor tiles’ and bricks’ and roof tiles’ companies from the regions: Southern Europe, Central Eastern Europe and Northern Western Europe. Consultants are ready to send out the questionnaire and start data collection from mid-June until mid-August. More ceramic companies are requested to confirm their participation in the next weeks, which is necessary to ensure the representativeness of the study.

Más información descargar .PDF

The Freiberg Refractories Forum 2015 was organized on 8-9 December 2015 in Freiberg/DE by the Institute of Ceramics, Glass and Construction Materials (IKGB) at Freiberg University of Mining and Technology in cooperation with the DFG (German Research Foundation) to present the result of the second research period of the DFG-project «Refractories Iniciative for the Reduction of Emissions – SPP 1418» (FIRE – Feuerfestinitiative zur Reduzierung von Emissionen).

Invited were especially the members of the DGM (German Association of Materials Science), the DKG (German Ceramic Society) and MORE (Meeting of Refractory Experts Freiberg Regd.) to be able to present these comprehensive results to the industry and experts of applied research. Before the technical sessions, the 11th Annual Meeting of MORE was hels to up-date the members on the activities of the association in the current year. The highlight of this meeting was the Theodor Haase Award 2015.

More information. Download .PDF

Este mes de junio ha tenido lugar en Llanera, Oviedo, el Curso de Materiales Refractarios ofrecido por ANFRE e impartido por el ITMA. Este curso ha sido íntegramente para personal de las empresas asociadas de ANFRE.

Se ha tratado de un curso en el que se ha combinado a la perfección las clases teóricas con el laboratorio y las visitas a empresas relacionadas con el sector.

Se ha hablado en profundidad de los materias primas refractarias, su clasificación, aplicaciones industriales, procesos de fabricación y hemos tenido tiempo incluso de de contar con la colaboración de Roberto Inoriza de Dominion Global que nos da dado una charla sobre la Ingeniería de detalle y el montaje de refractarios.

Se han realizado dos visitas, una a la Acería de Veriña  y otra a Arciresa, empresa asociada de ANFRE que se dedica a las Materias Primas.  En estas visitas los alumnos han podido vivir un poco más de cerca la realidad del sector y hacerse una idea de cómo se trabaja en dichas empresas.

Queríamos aprovechar la ocasión para dar las gracias a los las empresas y los alumnos que han participado en dicho curso, esperando que les sirve para su, esperamos, próspera carrera profesional. Igualmente queremos agradecer al Itma la oportunidad que nos ha brindado de realizar el curso con ellos, a la Acería de Veriña y Arciresa por permitirnos ver sus instalaciones y a Roberto Inoriza por asistir como invitado y excelente ponente.

Esperamos veros a todos en el siguiente curso.