Refractory and Metallurgical Solutions (RMS) has announced that the company had concluded a B-BBEE deal that will see its partner increase its shareholding in the company from 12.5 per cent to 40.82 per cent.

With this deal, RMS becomes one of the only South African refractory manufacturers of brick and monolithics that will comply with the new B-BBEE codes of the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Minerals and Energy.

RMS has also announced that the company has engaged with the South African Bureau of Standards to accredit their products that have a local content of more than 60 per cent.

“RMS’s predecessor – Vereeniging Refractories – was instrumental in the industrialisation of South Africa from the 1900s to the 1990s, in its area of expertise. RMS, with its new business model and strategy, together with the new shareholding structure is excited to be positioned to contribute to the region’s growth. As RMS we are committed to transformation and as a fully South African owned company, our strategy is first and foremost to contribute to the growth of the South African economy through local manufacturing and the offering of associated services,” commented Managing Director, Dennis Brazier.

“RMS is a local manufacturing refractory company, beneficiating local raw materials to produce shaped and unshaped refractories for the local metallurgical and chemical industries. Ninety per cent of all the value creation in the products is retained within the South African economy through local procurement, employee costs and taxes and payments to state-owned enterprises and local government. Imported products retain a maximum of a third to a half of the value within South Africa,” explained Brazier.

“Our refractories are supplied to the base metals, iron and steel, ferroalloys, cement, glass and petroleum industries. RMS has a range of products for insulation, abrasion and acid resistance applications. Bricks, blocks and hollowware are produced in different shapes and sizes to suit customer requirements.”

“RMS is capable of completing project work ranging from 50 to 2 000 tons of refractory products. RMS is a leading supplier of refractory brick and monolithic products for six-in-line smelting vessels in the base metals industry, working closely with OEM’s like Hatch. RMS has state of the art grinding facilities capable of grinding brick to tolerances of up to 0.8mm. Our design team can also design complex brick shapes to be pressed on modern high-speed hydraulic presses. We pride ourselves with being flexible to produce complex shapes and smaller quantities,” continued Brazier.

“Our facilities include brick grinding machines, cutting and drilling of brick up to 600mm and magnesium sulphate impregnation of basic brick.”

Iron, steel, ilmenite (also known as manaccanite) and foundries
“RMS has developed bespoke refractory solutions for many clients in the ferrous industries. Our approach is not one of matching or beating the competition, but one of finding the best solution, which gives the customer better vessel availability at the lowest cost per ton of final product.”

“RMS supplies a range of alumina silicate shaped and unshaped products to the iron and steel and foundry industry for metal transfer applications. Shaped products are produced primarily from andalusite and chamotte and are either dry pressed brick or precast shapes. In addition, RMS produces basic products for degassers, BOF and EAF back linings and hot face linings for foundry EAF’s. Through our international suppliers we are able to source the full range of carbon-based refractories.”

PGMs
“RMS refractory solutions are used in furnaces producing more than half of the world’s PGMs. Our extensive knowledge of furnaces used for PGM and precious metals recovery and refining allows us to provide practical and cost-effective solutions. RMS are one of the world-leading suppliers of six-in-line furnaces, circular electric arc furnaces, slag cleaning vessels and converter refractories.

“Our products have been developed inhouse and range from magnesia chromite, hydration resistant magnesia, high alumina, alumina chrome and alumina silicate refractories. RMS continuously monitors the performance of these products and makes improvements to the product to continually improve performance.”

RMS broadens product offering – graphite electrodes
RMS has also announced the addition of graphite electrodes and products to their product offerings.

“RMS has secured a source of graphite products from a reputable Chinese supplier. Furthermore, together with our major shareholder, we have come up with innovative financing options that can be offered to customers, easing cash flow constraints with the current prepayment structures required by suppliers.”

“RMS have supply channels with refractory suppliers in India and China for products not produced locally or that cannot be produced locally cost competitively.”

“With these supply chains, RMS has strengthened its product offerings to meet its vision of becoming the preferred refractory and metallurgical solutions provider to our current and future customers.”

For more information contact Refractory and Metallurgical Solutions on TEL: 016 100 4274 / 4277 or visit www.rmsolution.co.za