KUMAS Magnesia on high demand

As the largest supplier of magnesia raw material in Turky, we do hope to have a deep communication with you about the changes and trend in global magnesia market.
Asian Metal: Firstly, please give us a brief introduction of your honored company.
Bertan Beyaz : Headquarters in Istanbul, the plants are in Kütahya, our Mines & Works in Kutahya, Eskisehir & Tavşanlı region. We are the biggest natural DBM / CCM / FM producer and exporter in Turkey with annual final production capacity 600.000 tpy.

Asian Metal: Where do you mainly distribute your products? And could you please introduce your unique products advantages?
Bertan Beyaz :We supply DBM, CCM and FM all around the World to more than 50 different countries. Main export destinations are Europe, North America, India, Ukraine and Japan for our raw material sales. KUMAS is an integrated refractory company where basic refractory products (bricks and mortars) are also produced at the same plant. Also KUMAS is a unique company where all tyoe of magnesia products are produced at the same plant. From Raw Magnesite ore to, DBM, CCM, FM and Magnesium Hydroxide we have all range of production at Kütahya plant.

PRODUCT	CAPACITY	Grades
DBM	275,000 tpa	88-97 % MgO
DBD	20,000 tpa	High Purity Dead Burnt Dolomite
FM	40,000 tpa	96- 98% MgO
CCM	60,000 tpa	84-97 %MgO
Magnesium Hydroxide	3,000 tpa
Heating Element MgO	4,000 tpa	Low to High temperature Grades

DBM= Dead Burnt Magnesite, DBD= Dead Burnt Dolomite,
CCM= Caustic Calcined Magnesite, FM= Fused Magnesite
Asian Metal: How do you think of the jump in magnesia price and tight supply? And how much does your magnesia price increase by?
Bertan Beyaz :Of course we are happy to see that market prices of magnesia has increased this year. Depending on grades and availability our prices have also increased due to the higher demand to all of our products.
Asian Metal: Affected by serious short of magnesia and high price in Chinese market, more and more buyers are looking for new suppliers outside China. How about your production and sales volume so far this year?
Bertan Beyaz :As you are aware, the Chinese situation has created a completely unprecedented market conditions, and we are flooded with orders for DBM, CCM and FM. So for this year we are already sold out for all of our raw material grades. Actually we were already sold out beginning of August. As one of the largest DBM and FM producer (other than Chinese companies), KUMAS is a very well-known company and brand among all refractory companies.
For this year, our first priority was to meet the increased requirements of our established long-term customers and for the remaining part of our production capacity we offered materials to new customers for trials.
Most of our DBM & FM sales are with 1 year or 6 months contracts/agreements. Our customers appreciate the quality of our DBM & FM and try to secure their needs with long-term contracts with regardless of Chinese low prices in the past.

Asian Metal: Considering that the integration of magnesite ore in China by Government in Liaoning Province, as well as the Environmental Inspection and Control Policy, most market participants guess that the Chinese magnesia market will not improve by the end of this year. What’s your view on the future global magnesia market trend?
Bertan Beyaz :We also agree that Chinese magnesia market will not change this year. For future also we believe that about 25% of production capacity will disappear in China. Considering that raw material magnesia prices are also expected to increase after the consolidation, this will allow prices to stabilize at “sensible” levels for DBM, CCM and FM which plants will be profitable, without resorting to cheating on pollution or VAT.
Asian Metal: Whether you have the plan to expand your production capacity?
Bertan Beyaz :We have already completed our capacity expansion investments in previous years so we are not planning a new capacity increase at the moment.