The EU urgently needs to classify a substance used to line furnaces and kilns for making cement, glass and steel as a critical raw material or supplies will become hostage to China, the world’s biggest producer of high-end industrial ceramics has warned.
Stefan Borgas, chief executive of London-listed RHI Magnesita, told the Financial Times that while magnesite is essential to basic chemical processes underlying Europe’s industrial base, its absence from a list of strategically important materials has disincentivised homegrown production.
Magnesite is used to make refractories, materials that allow furnaces to handle extremely high temperatures above 1,200C. Europe imports most of its magnesite from China, which controls two-thirds of global production.