Hello Stefan, Season’s Greetings to you! What are the first things that come to your mind when you hear the words: success, Christmas, RHI Magnesita?

Season’s greetings to you too and to all our colleagues, customers, investors and partners. To me success is safety, resilience, and progress; Christmas is about community of people, gratitude – from a business perspective all these success and Christmas elements come together in RHI Magnesita: global, responsible leadership.

If you would like to host a Christmas holiday party for the whole of RHIM, what would be the theme?

The theme I would choose this year is ‘Building the Future Together Now,’ a concept that not only celebrates our past achievements but looks forward with optimism and purpose. This theme embodies a shared vision—a commitment to working together toward a future shaped by digitalization, delivering progress, cleaner environment and meticulous execution. It would highlight a kind of collaboration, where every contribution matters and strengthens our collective success. It underscores our joint commitment to safety as a cornerstone of everything we do, ensuring the well-being of our people and communities. It would place a strong focus on sustainability, reminding us of our responsibility to protect and preserve resources for generations to come.

If you could give your team one superpower for the new year, what would it be and how would it help the company?

If I could grant them a superpower, it would be the gift of fast decision making: the world has become so uncertain, that the courage to take decisions with some uncertainty has become key. Combined with the ability to anticipate and adapt to changes as they occur with again a swift decision. This would empower us to stay ahead of external challenges and continue to lead the industry with confidence.

How would you sum up the year 2024 for RHIM in one sentence?

2024 was a year of great hope which descended to be one of the most challenging in decades: the continued market downturn, the uncertain geo-politics, and mounting levels of bureaucracy are testing our agility and resilience. We are challenged to find innovative ways to sustain our business in order to successfully create value for all our stakeholders.

How has the global economic landscape influenced the company’s strategic decisions this year?

Profoundly! Key factors include the ongoing demand downturn, geopolitical disruptions, increasing trade barriers and structural shifts in major economies. These, together with a prolonged industrial stagnation, rising protectionism, the decline in traditional supply chains and structurally rising, but still volatile, raw material and sea freight cost have compelled us to rethink. For instance, the structural transformation in China from a supply and volume – driven to a demand, quality & value – driven economy has created short term imbalances in global trade, further complicating the business environment. Western economies are experiencing an industrial recession due to reduced demand in construction and transport sectors, while even previously optimistic regions like India and the Middle East are witnessing short-term weaknesses. In response RHIM has emphasised adaptability, discipline, and innovation. Recognizing overcapacity as a pressing issue, RHI Magnesita has prioritized value-addition strategies, focused on sustainability, and pursued acquisitions. This approach reflects a strategic adaptation to mitigate the uncertainties of a transformed global economy​.

According to you, what were the main achievements of RHI Magnesita in 2024?

Despite our own internal subjective disappointment with the year, objectively we’ve continued to demonstrate operational and financial resilience through the dedication and hard work of our teams. As the global leader in heat management, we have not stood still but are using this period to prepare for the future. When our customers choose RHI Magnesita, they choose high performance products and services for their applications, a collaborative relationship based on the true spirit of partnership, a team of people upholding commitment to safety and continuous improvement of their production, and a company that is actively pursuing low-carbon and circularity initiatives to make our planet sustainable. These principles are at the core of our new holistic solution contract named 4PRO. Internally, we have made huge progress in upgrading our global digital architecture and connected delivery platform: RHIM is investing over €100m until 2027 to re-build our global end-to-end value chain for a step- change in improving our service to our customers.

The safety and well-being of our people continued to be our top value. This year we have started to fundamentally transform our safety culture in order to achieve zero accidents in all of RHIM’s production plants and at all of our operations at customer sites. Furthermore, with almost €1m of personal donations as a starting fund, RHIM’s employees & Board of Directors have instituted RHI Magnesita HELP – an independent non-profit association that offers fast, unbureaucratic support for persons and their families around the world who have been affected by work-related accidents. The scope includes RHI Magnesita, its operating communities, its business partners, contractors, customers, and suppliers.

The refractory industry is by nature a ‘hard-to-abate’ industry, but we are committed to seeking new ways to eliminate CO2 emissions from our operations and our global supply chain in the long term. Since 2018, we’ve delivered positive change: Ongoing investments in CO2 emissions avoidance and Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage has resulted in 1.6 Mt CO2 emissions savings since 2018 (more than 20% of our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions). We have made significant investments in recycling: 13.2% of the raw materials we now use globally comes from our customers « spent refractories ». We aim to take this to 15% by the end of next year and to 20% in 2030. This requires ongoing technology development to uphold the best refractory performance in the world. We are looking forward to a “circular” collaboration with all of our business partners. Our customers have validated RHIM’s sustainability leadership in the industry during 2024 by awarding us several very large green steel projects, for Direct Reduction, Open Bath, Electric Arc, and Basic Oxygen furnaces, all essential for the large-scale adoption of green steel production globally.

Customers have also shown strong satisfaction with the ongoing improvements in the offering, as evidenced by record-high net promoter scores and PIFOT (Produced in Full and On Time) metrics, which reached new peaks in Q3.

During 2024, we continued to seamlessly integrate the people, products, and processes of 9 companies that we’ve acquired in last 3 years, creating synergies and driving value for all our stakeholders. Our acquisition strategy continues with the pending acquisition of Resco Group (enterprise value of up to $430 million), with anticipated completion in Q1 2025.

In 2024, we embarked on a journey to drive better service delivery for customers and create more career opportunities for our employees working in shared services. We have transitioned most of our global shared services operations to Capgemini, a global leader in process design, digital transformation, and shared service operations. Capgemini will play a key role in supporting the implementation of our new ERP system, which is expected to be delivered between mid-2025 and mid-2027. Many thanks to our colleagues in the shared service centres for their past and future dedication and performance.

Year after year, RHIM’s Global Trainee Program is becoming attractive to more and more people. This year, we saw a record number of applicants, and 20 trainees joined RHIM, most of them women. We are thrilled that these young and talented individuals have chosen us as the starting point for their professional careers.

What goals are on your vision board for yourself and the company for next year?

I would like to see every aspect of RHIM become much safer. For this it would be crucial for everyone at RHIM to play an active part in the safety culture transformation. After that, I would further like to see us strengthening our core culture values to be more customer focussed and deliver across our growing footprint everywhere. 

I wish that RHIM accelerates the business transformation driven by the digital transformation. This will make us future ready so that we can lead the industry through the 21^st century. This requires a further improvement of operational excellence and supply chain delivery performance and the optimisation of our “administrative factory”. 

We will continue to focus on disciplined growth through partnerships and acquisitions. The integration of products, processes and especially people of the acquired business will continue be a clear priority. This also allows us to explore further optimisation of our production networks to improve customer experience, adapt to the changing global market environment and of course to deliver shareholder value.

We will continue to build industry opinion and administrative policy support for decarbonizing the refractory value chain, especially the raw materials, together with our suppliers, and invest on new technologies for carbon capture and utilization and recycling for making positive impact on emission control.

Making our industry more attractive for young talent worldwide, particularly women must continue. Diversification of our talents and leaders is essential for sustained performance growth for a global company that we are now.

Personally, I remain committed in the new year to fostering a culture of openness, collaboration and personal accountability to deliver. I hope I can inspire all of RHIM’s employees to achieve these goals, ensuring together that we leave a positive impact.

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In response to the evolving needs of the refractory industry and a changing readership landscape, RHI Magnesita proudly unveils the new digital format of its renowned scientific trade journal, Bulletin!

The new dynamic online platform reaffirms RHI Magnesita’s ambition to be at the forefront of technological advancement in the industry and aims to engage a broader, more diverse audience. It is a user-friendly, digital experience for readers across industries seeking real-time knowledge.

Embracing the Future of Global Knowledge Sharing

With over 90% of its readership comprising external stakeholders, the Bulletin’s digital transformation opens new avenues for knowledge sharing on a global scale. The online platform will feature articles, videos, and interactive elements, providing readers with timely insights into the latest products, technologies, and trends in the refractory industry.
In addition, the digital edition is set to transcend geographical boundaries, catering not only to the existing readership (which spans over 70% in Europe, including CIS and Turkey), but also to a global audience hungry for refractory insights.

Cross-departmental excellence

Behind the scenes, the R&D team of RHI Magnesita put their tireless efforts into ensuring that the platform not only presents the latest industry advancements but also reflects the depth of research and innovation. In parallel, the communications professionals strategically navigated the challenges of this transformation.

 
Head of R&D, Thomas Prietl, emphasized the significance of this collaboration, stating:

“The digital Bulletin is a testament to the collective expertise of our R&D and communications team. We’ve infused it with the latest breakthroughs, ensuring that professionals across the globe can access cutting-edge insights and stay ahead in the rapidly evolving refractory landscape.”

 
Christoph Humitsch, Spokesperson, added:

“The synergy between our communication strategies and the groundbreaking research by the R&D colleagues has not only elevated our offerings but also paved the way for a more engaging, personalized and forward-thinking user experience. With the strong foundation we’ve built, I am confident that this collaboration will prosper, opening new avenues for growth and innovation!”

Looking Forward: A Vision for Industry Excellence

As RHI Magnesita launches the digital Bulletin, the company envisions the platform as a hub for ongoing updates, interactive discussions, and collaboration within the refractory community. The digital format allows for customization, ensuring that readers can tailor their experience to suit their individual interests.

Visit bulletin page

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How did the year 2023 unfold for RHI Magnesita and the refractory industry at large?

This year brought unexpected demand challenges for the entire industry worldwide – the worst year in the past 15 years from that perspective. It put productivity pressures on our employees; we need to fight high inflation in many countries; we deal with quickly rising financing costs. I am mostly proud of how the RHI Magnesita team acted, and how each person fulfilled their role: thanks to them, our company showed operational and financial strength, a testament to dedication and hard work. This serves as a promising sign for the upcoming year.

How do you stay afloat and, moreover, remain a leader?

To overcome these challenges and maintain a leadership position, we are laser-focused on short-term execution and, at the same time, keeping a rather long-term strategic approach. Over the past four years, we’ve invested over EUR 850 million in our facilities, focusing on reducing costs, improving quality, optimizing our production network, and ensuring the smooth delivery of our commitments. This period of investment has made us much stronger for the future.

An important part of our strategy involves prioritizing the safety and well-being of our employees. In 2023, we increased our investments in physical safety infrastructure, expanded our expert staff, introduced digital tools safety, and reinforced safety training. Our longstanding belief is that people drive progress, contributing significantly to our overall resilience.

What were the main achievements of RHI Magnesita in 2023?

Despite the turbulence, our great team achieved a lot – here are a few highlights:

• Completion of strategic acquisitions, including Dalmia Bharat Refractories Limited, Jinan New Emei Industries Co. Ltd., Seven Refractories, and P-D Refractories. This brings the total to nine acquisitions in the last two years, expanding our global presence and diversifying our product offering. Latest news: we offer silica bricks from the Czech Republic and India, ISO thin-slab from India, and true circular solutions in every geography – – to mention just several of the new capabilities.
• Welcoming approximately 4,000 new colleagues across Europe, CIS & Türkiye, India, China, and North America, resulting in a workforce of around 20,000 professionals worldwide. Our commitment to diversity is evident with 105 nationalities represented (compared to 60 last year) and an increase in female representation in senior leadership positions to 29% (up from 19% last year). We have also launched a new internal employee app, to keep everyone connected, informed, and heard, whether you are at the plant or in the office.
• Continued dedication to environmental sustainability, characterized by substantial investments in lowering CO2 emissions and exploring advanced technologies for even greater reductions. Collaborations with Australian cleantech MCi Carbon and Compact Membrane Systems (CMS) underscore our commitment. Our joint venture MIRECO received a prestigious European Refractory Industry Sustainability Award for its Recycling Center in Mitterdorf. And just last month, RHI Magnesita received an Award for Sustainability Disclosure of the Year! All these efforts since 2018 led to an annual reduction of CO2 emissions by 1.3 million tons. We have switched to renewable electricity in most markets in the world. This December, together with many industrial peers in Europe, we convinced the authorities to keep the allocation of free CO2 certificates for process emissions on the same level for the next ETS period, which gives us some more time to implement solutions.
• Receiving a record number of applications for the RHI Magnesita Global Trainee Program 2023 from emerging professionals all over the world. Two weeks ago, I met with 12 new members of our family – amazing, talented people; the future of RHI Magnesita and the refractory industry overall. Don’t forget to apply/encourage your friends to apply for the RHI Magnesita Global Trainee Program 2024, which is now even more cross-functional!
• Active engagement with various industry stakeholders, in both private and public sectors, to stay at the forefront of promoting innovation, knowledge-sharing, and sustainable solutions. To highlight a few events we were part of: Alpbach Forum, UNIDO General Conference, EU Raw Materials Week, St. Gallen Symposium, Mineral Recycling Forum, AMB Week in South America, International Steel and Metallurgy Exhibition and CII Green Steel Summit in India, Annual Symposium on Refractories and Steel Forum in China, and many others.

We’ll use these positive results as motivation to propel ourselves forward because there’s always space for further growth and enhancement; all while actively listening to our customers.

Now Holiday blitz questions – fun but still related to business. Define your leadership style: do you glide through the corporate landscape like a figure skater or blaze a trail like a daring snowboarder?

Neither one: I prefer to play the role of the coach, but in the midst of the ring. For some activities, we employ the world’s best refractory figure skaters, whom I trust and support; for others, we have our existing daring snowboarders, who are also top-notch, and whom I can guide and advise.

Without a doubt, we need to ensure room for creativity and agility, akin to occasional “pirouettes”… and sometimes even a little cozy nap under a Christmas tree. I always aim for weighted decisions and case-specific strategies.

In all of this, solid partnerships and intense teamwork are crucial. The entire Executive Management Team is a very high-performance team; and enjoy working with each other.

If you were to gift your company a theme song for the holidays, would it be a classic carol or a modern jingle?

Probably a modern jingle – it resonates with our identity as innovator, frontrunner, and pioneer, always oriented toward the future.

If your company were a Holiday movie genre, would it be a heartwarming comedy, a thrilling action flick, or a dramatic saga?

In light of recent external uncertainties, our narrative aligns closely with that of a suspenseful thriller (one where the good guy always wins at the end). Despite unforeseen events, we consistently find a positive resolution.

Obviously, maintaining a warm atmosphere within the company is a precondition for dealing with the tough world out there. This necessitates an approachable management team and space for occasional celebrations, fun, and laughter. Unnecessary drama is simply not on our script.

To sum everything up, on behalf of the RHI Magnesita Executive Management Team and our Board of Directors, I extend warm holiday wishes and a profound thank-you to all our employees, partners, investors, customers, suppliers, and supporters. The success of RHI Magnesita is a testament to your unwavering passion and engagement. Here’s to a new season filled with joy, success, and the anticipation of a blockbuster sequel in 2024!

By Dana Đikić

The post A year-end reflection with RHI Magnesita CEO Stefan Borgas: Navigating challenges and celebrating success! appeared first on RHI Magnesita.

Wien (OTS) – RHI Magnesita hat heute einen langfristigen strategischen Kooperationsvertrag mit dem australischen cleantech-Unternehmen MCi Carbon (“MCi”) unterzeichnet. Der Weltmarktführer der Feuerfestindustrie investiert mehrere Millionen in die Forschung und Entwicklung innovativer Technologien zur Reduktion von Kohlenstoffdioxidemissionen, um sein Ziel, ein CO2-neutrales Unternehmen zu werden, zu erreichen. Dadurch wird RHI Magnesitas Rolle als Vorreiter in Sachen Nachhaltigkeit in der Feuerfestindustrie unterstrichen.

“Diese Partnerschaft könnte ein Durchbruch auf dem Weg zur Dekarbonisierung der Industrie werden. Sie fügt sich nahtlos in die ambitionierte Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie von RHI Magnesita ein”, sagt CEO Stefan Borgas. “Wir haben noch einen langen Weg vor uns, aber unsere Investition in dieser frühen Phase und die klare Absicht einer langfristigen Zusammenarbeit machen diesen Tag so denkwürdig. Gemeinsam mit dem gleichgesinnten Team von MCi werden wir den Weg für eine grünere Industrie ebnen.”

RHI Magnesita ist der weltweit führende Hersteller von feuerfesten Materialien, die in allen industriellen Hochtemperaturprozessen eingesetzt werden. Als Marktführer sieht sich RHI Magnesita in der Verantwortung, Nachhaltigkeit voranzutreiben. CO2-Emissionen zu reduzieren ist daher eine der obersten Prioritäten des Unternehmens. Ein wesentlicher Teil der Kohlenstoffdioxidemissionen des Unternehmens wird bei der Aufbereitung von Mineralien freigesetzt. Die Dekarbonisierung des Unternehmens erfordert daher noch nie dagewesene Innovation und Technologie.

Die Technologie von MCi bietet eine sichere und rentable Möglichkeit, CO2 dauerhaft zu binden. Der chemische Prozess, die so genannte Mineralkarbonatisierung, erzeugt eine Reihe von Materialien, darunter Magnesiumkarbonat, indem Mineralien aus Nebenprodukten industrieller Prozesse karbonisiert werden. Für diese innovative Klimalösung wurde MCi mit dem #1 Global Cleantech Pitch auf der COP26 in Glasgow ausgezeichnet.

RHI Magnesita ist von dem Potenzial der Mineralisierung überzeugt. Diese wird dabei helfen, eine signifikante CO2-Reduktion innerhalb der Scope 1-Emissionen des Unternehmens zu erreichen. Bislang haben beide Unternehmen gemeinsam an CO2-Minderungsstudien, Bewertungen von Rohstoffen für die Mineralisierung und technisch-wirtschaftlichen Analysen an den weltweiten Standorten von RHI Magnesita gearbeitet. Das aktuelle Investment resultiert aus der hohen industriellen Forschungsreife der Technologie des Cleantechs sowie der außergewöhnlichen Eignung der Technologie für den Einsatz in der Feuerfestindustrie und im Konzern selbst.

“MCi und RHI Magnesita sind eine wertorientierte Zusammenarbeit eingegangen, um die Skalierung der “Circular Carbon Platform” von MCi zu beschleunigen”, sagt MCi-Mitgründer und CEO Marcus Dawe. “Nach einem Jahr erfolgreicher Pilotstudien wird RHI Magnesita der erste kommerzielle Kunde und Anteilseigner von MCi sein und dazu beitragen, die Technologie voranzutreiben und die globale Feuerfestindustrie zu dekarbonisieren. Dies ist ein positiver Schritt in Richtung einer schwer zu erreichenden Emissionsreduzierung und infolgedessen einer Kreislaufwirtschaft”.

In einem nächsten Schritt werden sich die gemeinsamen Bemühungen der Unternehmen auf die industrielle Skalierung konzentrieren, die voraussichtlich 2024 mit der Errichtung einer Demonstrationsanlage durch MCi in Newcastle, Australien, beginnen wird. Dies wird von der australischen Regierung unterstützt und steht im Einklang mit den Zielen der Net Zero Industries Initiative von Mission Innovation, die von Österreich und Australien gemeinsam geleitet wird.

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