Pieper Superbanner glasstec 2024


Home » Markets & News » Company News » World Demand for Refractories to Exceed 46 Mt in 2016

World Demand for Refractories to Exceed 46 Mt in 2016

Product sales will climb 5,3 % annually in value terms to USD 46,5 billion in 2016, not as strong as gains registered in recent years because of a moderation in raw material costs and refractory prices. The iron and steel market will continue to dominate global refractory sales, accounting for almost three-fifths of all 2016 product demand in volume terms. These and other trends are presented in World Refractories, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry US-market research firm. Refractory sales will expand most quickly in developing areas, reflecting an ongoing shift in metals and other heavy industry production to countries with low cost structures. The Asia/Pacific region, in particular, will post the largest tonnage increases, followed by the Africa/Mideast region, Central and South America, and Eastern Europe. China alone will account for more than seven-tenths of all refractory volume gains between 2011 and 2016, due both to additional growth in its huge steel, cement, and other heavy manufacturing industries and to the use of less sophisticated production methods in steelmaking and other important markets than those utilized in economically advanced nations, resulting in greater refractory use in per unit of output terms. The volume of refractories consumed will also rise in the US, Western Europe, and Japan following an extended period of decline, as economic conditions strengthen in these areas and output of ferrous metals and other refractory-using products rebounds. Output gains in these areas are more likely to result in higher refractory demand because the manufacturing techniques utilized are already so efficient that it will be much more difficult to reduce refractory consumption on a per unit output basis than in less developed countries. Due to their greater use of more costly, high quality products, the US, Western Europe, and Japan will account for a somewhat larger share of the world refractory market total in dollar terms (19 %) in 2016 than they will in tonnage (14 %). (3/2013)


Related Supplier

Profiles to follow

To bee seen in

Issue to follow