Raw Materials

Raw materials critical for the refractory industry

The EU refractory ceramics industry is vital for the EU industry as a whole, but is heavily dependent on imports of refractory industrial minerals. The supply situation for the European refractory industry is particularly critical for high grade magnesia, bauxite and graphite which are mainly sourced from China due its vast raw material reserves.

PRE has therefore followed with great interest the work of the European Commission ad-hoc group mandated to define a list of critical raw materials. This action was the first of ten action points identified under the European Commission's Raw Material Initiative. The final criticality report, published in June 2010, identifies 14 raw materials as critical, including graphite, taking into account their supply risk and economic importance. Magnesite and bauxite are identified as potentially critical. Annex V of the report includes detailed qualitative information on all assessed raw materials.

Further information can be found in the PRE document entitled: Refractory Ceramics and Industrial Minerals are Critical for European Industry.

A presentation on the importance of raw materials for the European Refractory Industry was also given at the European Parliament Ceramics Forum on 17 November 2010.

General information on the raw materials initiative can be found on the Cerame-Unie raw materials webpage.

WTO dispute settlement Panel

China applies a range of export restrictions on raw materials, such as export duties, export quota and non-automatic export licensing. PRE/Cerame-Unie strongly supports the WTO Panel proceedings on Chinese export restrictions on raw materials requested by the EU (and by the USA and Mexico) on 9 November 2009. An overview of the case can be found here.

On the 5th of July 2011, the final report was published. The WTO Panel has found that China's export restrictions were not justified on environmental grounds and should be removed. The link to the panel report can be found here.