Expanding in refactories Intocast

EXPANDING IN REFACTORIES

Germany-based Intocast offers its customers a complete package in refactory materials – and is looking for strong growth in the coming years. Abigail Saltmarsh reports.

INrecent times, refractory and casting auxiliary products producer Intocast has seen significant growth. Now, says the sales director, Markus Schwan, the group is looking to almost double its size again within the next two years.

“We are looking for worldwide, aggressive growth,” he stresses. “We want to achieve that with organic growth and through acquisition. Our target for the next two years is to reach a €250 million turnover.

“This means almost doubling our turnover but we can do it through new products and new markets, and by becoming the manufacturer of choice.”

Major growth

Intocast was founded in 1979 with the takeover of the activities of Eugen Schwarz, a company which had supplied the German and European steel industry with products since 1922. In the course of the past two decades, the group has expanded by taking huge market shares within refractory and casting auxiliary products, and through strategic acquisitions.

Today, the Intocast Group is a global player with eight German and nine foreign offices and production plants. It employs approximately 800 staff members worldwide. It is one of the few companies worldwide that manufacture refractory materials and casting auxiliaries as well as metallurgical slag additives.

DRAGUN Shooter EVO II Soaking pit at TKS

A complete package

Intocast’s operations include blast furnace launders, iron transfer ladles, iron mixers and refractory maintenance for basic oxygen converters and electric arc furnaces. It also focuses on RH degassers, vacuum degassers, steel ladles, slag pots, continuous casting operations, ingot casting and heat treatment furnaces in rolling mills. Its products are designed for the iron and steel industry, the foundry industry and the nonferrous metal industry, as well as the cement industry, the ceramics industry, those working in chemicals and petrochemicals, and in all incinerator plants where processes are carried out at high temperatures.

“Our aim is to offer our customers from these areas a complete package,” explains Mr Schwan. “For example, we have just launched a new range of gunning materials for basic oxygen furnaces (BOFs) and/or electric arc furnaces. This means we now offer our customers all the equipment they require in this area. We can provide them with the full package.”

Years of knowledge

Intocast is recognised for the knowledge and know-how it brings to its business. It understands that no two steel plants

MAPEKO horizontal ladle burner

or their processes are the same and that customer requirements are individual and unique in their own right.

In close cooperation with its customers, it analyses current and future processing issues and develops tailor-made solutions. In a continuous exchange of ideas and a close cooperation with the customer, solutions are developed in accordance with the specific demands and economically viable applications for refractory materials and casting auxiliaries are introduced.

The goal is to simplify operational processes, continuously lift quality targets and raise cost-effectiveness, says Mr Schwan. Intocast offers the customer a wide range of products and services to raise productivity and increase competitiveness.

To enable it to do so, it employs metallurgists, foundry engineers, chemists, mineralogists and ceramics engineers, whose expertise is enhanced through long practical experience in the development and application of refractory products and casting auxiliaries.

New markets

“We are expanding our business into new markets but there is always an emphasis on quality,” says Mr Schwan. “We are very well established in Germany and in Europe in general so now we are looking towards South America. We have a joint venture with a Brazilian partner. This was launched at the beginning of the year.”

With joint ventures in China as well, and a recent acquisition in Spain, which has “filled the white space” in the Spanish and Portuguese markets, Intocast is on target for further global growth.

“At the moment, 50 per cent of our turnover comes from Germany, and 50 per cent from the rest of the world,” he continues. “We would like to see the global percentage increase, particularly with the up-and-coming markets of South America and China.” n