Although 2011 has so far been positive for most players in the industry a cautionary wind is now sweeping the world of refractories in Europe, participants reported to IM at the 54th International Colloquium on Refractories in Aachen, Germany.
“Business is good at present but the outlook is uncertain. Even if we do not see any indication of a crisis, we are watching the situation,” Andreas Eickhoff, Lanxess AG’s head of Strategic Marketing Chrome commented to IM.
Germany-based leading speciality aluminas producer, Almatis GmbH remains “cautiously optimistic” in spite of a “lot of uncertainty” in the market.
“We are more positive than we thought. We could see a slight decline in the industry in 2012 but nothing compare to the last financial crisis which hit the industry three years ago,” Barbara Steuler, Almatis’ director corporate marketing, commented to IM, underlining that good...