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[March 2007]
Steady Sales Growth for Almatis
Since its inception three years ago, Almatis has recorded over 20% growth in sales volume. Much of this growth is attributed to an increased consumption of higher quality alumina-based refractories driven by continuously growing steel production volumes and the transition to higher quality steel. Another major growth contributor concerns the high performance aluminas in advanced ceramics. An increase in sales volume has also been witnessed for speciality alumina-based hydrates that are used as flame retardant in wire and cable applications, filler in paper products or speciality coatings."The Almatis focus on the production of high quality synthetic aluminas and on supplying value to our customers is a story of tremendous growth," said Martin Laudenbach, CEO of Almatis. "Although there is a wide range of raw materials available on the market today, choosing the right combination and quality of components gives our customers clear performance improvement."
Alumina-based refractories are valued, particularly by the world's steelmakers, for their superior mechanical strength and thermal shock resistance at the extreme temperatures used in materials production. High quality synthetic aluminas play an ever increasing role because product consistency and chemical purity are critical to optimising the performance of refractory formulations. Consistency of both chemical and physical characteristics is equally valued in the manufacture of industrial and advanced ceramics used in engineered and electronic applications.
"We at Almatis are committed to further invest in the industrial excellence of our processes and products to ensure that the ever increasing demands on today's and tomorrow's high performance aluminas are met," added Martin Laudenbach. "Additionally, we are focusing our Specialty Hydrates Business towards the markets and applications of the future. We are very excited about the prospects of leveraging our technical and service capabilities to stay ahead of the market curve.”
Since being divested from Alcoa in 2004, Almatis has invested more than US$70 million in the expansion and modernisation of its production facilities and organisation world-wide, thus remaining the largest investor in its industry.
www.almatis.com
ENDS