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Industry News & Analysis

Steel, cement, energy and raw-material developments, read the way a refractory engineer reads them. Cited, concise, updated as it happens.

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Policy

India Sets CO2 Intensity Targets for 255 Steel Plants

India's environment ministry has drafted CO2-intensity reduction targets for 255 iron and steel plants under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, starting FY2026-27. The 255 units carry a combined baseline of 358.6 MtCO2e, and required cuts range from 2.1% to 9.3% depending on each plant's starting intensity. For refractory and insulation buyers, the near-term compliance lever is energy efficiency — which starts at the furnace lining.

7 min readBy SAPL Engineering Desk
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Cement

JSW Cement's 60 MTPA Roadmap: What It Means for Kiln Refractories

JSW Cement has laid out a path from 24.1 MTPA installed capacity today to 35.25 MTPA by 2028, 46 MTPA soon after, and a long-term vision of 60 MTPA to break into India's top five cement producers. Not all of that growth means new kiln refractory demand: JSW Cement's clinker capacity already covers only about 40% of its grinding capacity, so the mix of brownfield versus greenfield additions — not the headline MTPA figure — is what determines new kiln lining work.

Raw Materials

Odisha's Alumina-to-Aluminium Buildout: Refining Triples, Smelting Doubles

Two real, separately announced Odisha investments, a doubling of aluminium smelting capacity and a tripling of alumina refining capacity, point the same direction: significant new aluminium metal moving through Indian cast houses over the next few years. For refractory buyers already running or building aluminium melting and holding furnaces, that's a demand signal worth tracking now.

Steel

SAIL–Krakatau Steel's $350M Stainless Slab Plant: The Refractory Read

SAIL and Indonesia's Krakatau Steel plan to invest up to $350 million in a 500,000-tonne-per-year stainless steel slab plant in Indonesia, Reuters reported on 29 July 2026. SAIL will take the entire output to its Salem works in Tamil Nadu for rolling and finishing, with the project targeted for commissioning in three to four years. For refractory buyers, a greenfield AOD/EAF melt shop and a finishing plant absorbing new slab volume are two separate specification conversations worth starting early.

Cement

Dalmia Bharat's â‚ą3,100-Crore Kadapa Expansion: What It Means for Refractories

Dalmia Bharat has broken ground on a â‚ą3,100-crore Line-2 at Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, more than doubling clinker capacity to 6.1 MTPA with commissioning targeted for Q3 FY28. For refractory and insulation suppliers, a new kiln train of this size is a multi-year demand signal that starts well before the plant is commissioned.

Raw Materials

Bauxite Eases in Mid-2026, but China Still Sets the Magnesia Price

Bauxite prices softened through the first half of 2026, easing input costs for alumina-based refractories. Magnesia tells the opposite story: China's export posture continues to set the floor for the magnesia-carbon bricks that line steel ladles and converters. For Indian plants, the two trends pull refractory budgets in opposite directions.

Steel

India Is Building Most of the World's New Blast Furnaces, What It Means for Refractories

India is building the majority of the world's new blast furnace capacity, with major additions at Tata, JSW, AMNS and Jindal landing through 2026. Every new furnace is a large, recurring consumer of refractories, from hearth and trough to stack and stoves. For refractory buyers and suppliers, this is a multi-year demand signal, not a one-off.