imformed.comMike O'Driscoll
Aluminated at Aachen’s ICR26: Refractory market reality check | New BFA plants
Just like London buses, you wait for one new brown fused alumina (BFA) plant to be built outside China for the western market, then three come along at once! (Almatis/ROMCO – Bautek – First Bauxite, see below).
Then followed by the cold shower of the keynotes reminding us that we are amid the chaos of a new world order, and that the European refractory market has contracted by a third since 2019 – “one tonne in three…gone!”.
It was almost as distressing as finding out about the sad demise of the favourite post-conference watering hole “Zum Goldenen Einhorn” (“The Golden Unicorn”; guess they needed the ICR more than once a year).
For all of the above, the message is to adapt and survive.
Such news abounded at a vibrant International Colloquium of Refractories 2026 in Aachen 15-16 September, organised by…
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