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China leads production and consumption in refractories market

The latest report from Persistence Market Research, “Refractories Market: Global Industry Analysis and forecast to 2020” estimates that total global production of refractories will exceed 55 million tons a year by 2020.

Refractories are non-metallic materials which are able to retain their structure even at temperatures above 1000 °F. Refractories are used in linings of furnaces, incinerators and reactors in many industries. The key end-user industries for refractories include iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, non-metallic minerals; and non-metallic materials such as glass. Multiple refractory layers and additional insulation materials are necessary to protect the product’s structure from aggressive processing conditions. Iron and steel was the largest end-user industry for refractories accounting for about 75% of total market in 2013.
The growth of end-user industries and the increasing demand for high performance furnaces has been driving the global refractories market. However, due to increasing equipment efficiency, the refractory consumption of the end-user companies has declined. The global glass market is growing at a fast pace, due to increasing demand from construction and corporate sectors. Refractories consumption per ton of the processed metal varies across the countries. For instance, Japan consumes about 10 kilograms of refractories per ton of steel, whereas with 23 kg/ton, it is more than double in China.
There are basically two categories of refractories in terms of form type: bricks and shapes and monolithic. The bricks and shapes was the largest refractories segment in 2013 by form type, however, the monolithic segment is expected to grow at a higher rate during 2014-2020. Clay was the largest and fastest growing segment in the refractories market. The total global production of refractories in 2012 was observed to be 45.7 million tons and it is expected to pass 55 million by 2020. The refractories industry in recent years has been engaged in extensive research and development, including new generation of refractories, Eco Refractories. These will be used in furnaces for alternative energy production including solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, hydrogen, nuclear and biomass.
Asia Pacific was the largest market for refractories market in 2013 followed by Europe. China was the largest producer and consumer of refractories in Asia Pacific in 2013. China is also the one of the largest supplier of refractories raw materials such as refractory bauxite, magnesia, graphite, brown fused alumina and silicon carbide. The high rate of infrastructural development and growing consumer goods such as automobiles in the country is increasing the demand for iron and steel leading to the growth of refractories market in the country.
The key companies in the refractories market include RHI AG, ANH Refractories Company, Calderys SA, Wugang Refractory Company Limited, Saint-Gobain SA, Refratechnik Holding GmbH and Krosaki Harima Corporation.

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