Bauxite: Bearing the brunt of shrinking refractories demand
By Laura Syrett
Published: Monday, 25 January 2016
Ructions in the global commodities markets have wrought havoc with demand for both metallurgical and non-metallurgical grades of bauxite. While the demise of the former, used for the production of alumina for aluminium metal, has been well documented, the slowdown in the refractory grade bauxite sector has been less obtrusive. IM’s Acting Editor, Laura Syrett, spoke to the industry about how it is dealing with the downturn in refractories consumption.
While the protracted slowdown in the global price of
aluminium is making like difficult for the majority of the
world’s bauxite industry, the contraction in world
steel output has been hammering producers of non-metallurgical
grades of the mineral.
2016 began with a raft of foreboding news for both
sectors....