During the last few months, debate has raged in the refractory industry about the potential sale of 25% of Austria’s RHI AG shares to Brazil’s Magnesita Refratarios SA.
This week brought confirmation that such a deal is not pure speculation when the Brazilian company announced on Monday that it had “attacked” the leading global refractories group by obtaining significant market share in Europe.
Magnesita, which dominates the Brazilian refractories market, signed a deal with ThyssenKrupp to supply refractory products to three of the steelmaker’s plants in Germany; placing it at the centre of the European steel market.
“This is very important for us as we are increasing our market share in Europe,” a spokesman for Magnesita said to IM, storming: “RHI is attacking the Brazilian market and we are attacking RHI’s European market while they attack us here.”...