Overcapacity in downstream refractory markets drags down 2015 demand

• Autores: Albert Li
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 583, 2016 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Mayo)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Attendees at China's Refractory Association meeting expressed concern regarding the serious overcapacity problem in downstream refractory industries. Capacity utilisation rates for the downstream refractory segment as a whole was reported at 70-75% for 2015, while figures for the steel sector fell to 70% capacity utlisation.

    Production of the ten nonferrous products in China - including zinc, lead and copper - stood at 50.90m tonnes in 2015, up 5.8%, with growth slowing by 1.4 percentage points. Electrolytic aluminum totalled 31.41m tonnes, up 8.4% y-o-y; copper, 7.96m tonnes, up 4.8%; lead, 3.86m tonnes, down 5.3%; zinc, 6.15m tonnes, up 4.9%; and alumina 58.9m tonnes, up 9.6%.

    Downstream production-cutting is expected to fall by 3-3.5% for the period 2016-2020. Crude steel production is expected to fall from 800m tonnes to 650-700m tonnes by 2020, based on 16-17kg/tonne consumption for refractories used in steel, however refractory demand in this sector is anticipated to fall by 3m tonnes.