12th Rare Earth Summit
May 27-28, 2021
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
11th Aluminum Raw Materials Summit
May 20-21, 2021
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
9th Magnesium Summit
April 15-16, 2021
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
13th World InBiGeGa Forum
March 25-26, 2021
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
7th World Antimony Forum
June 13-14, 2019
Changsha, Hunan, China
7th Refractory & Abrasive Materials Summit 2019
May 23-24, 2019
Qingdao, Shandong, China
10th Aluminum Raw Materials Summit
May 16-17, 2019
Zhengzhou, Henan, China
11th Rare Earth Summit
May 9-10, 2019
Qingdao, Shandong, China
8th Magnesium Summit
April 11-12, 2019
Zhuhai, Guangdong, China
12th World InBiGeGa Forum
March 14-15, 2019
Zhuhai, Guangdong, China
6th World Manganese & Selenium Forum
May 21-22, 2018
Hainan Sanya, China
Interview with Li Xinggang, General Manager of Hartley (Haicheng) Magnesite Company Limited
Hartley (Haicheng) Magnesite Company Limited is located inside of the high-purity magnesite sinter factory of Haicheng Magnesite Refractory General Factory in Pailou town, Haicheng city, with the surface area of 320,000 square meters. The company is situated at a place where 17km to the southeast of Haicheng city, about 300km away from Dalian port and 100km from Yingkou port. It possesses its standard railway route which joins the national railway line from Beijing to Shenyang and Haicheng Xiuyan highway through the mining area. The products can be delivered to the ports of Dalian, Yingkou and Bayuquan by these convenient transportation and then exported directly abroad.
Li Xinggang: Ensure high quality and keep sustainable development of magnesia industry
----Interview with Li Xinggang, General Manager of Hartley (Haicheng) Magnesite Company Limited
Asian Metal: Mr Li, thank you for accepting our exclusive interview. As we all know that the economy is not favorable this year as various industries keep sluggish. Could you please talk about the macroeconomic environment and its effect on magnesia industry?
Li: The financial crisis hit the world in 2008 and Chinese government took many macro policies to stimulate the economy, faced with the impact it imposed to the industry. The crisis is severe this year as some industries have difficulty in operation, which will have bad effect on production, sales and the price. However, I think that it is also a challenge for enterprises to deal with the crisis as difficulty always goes together with challenge. We can find way to survive by improving the quality and technology, optimizing management and promoting innovative talents.
Asian Metal: With more companies involved in magnesia industry, competition becomes fiercer.What do you think are advantages of your company?
Li: The quality is the most important as the product belongs to extensive form, mainly relying on resources and management also plays a key role. As a result, the refractory plants are dispersed, some of which are private and the others are large. Those small companies can make more profits with low costs, but to end users such as large mills, cement plants, glassworks, they pay more attention on quality. If the company only cares about the short-term interest, selling while producing, it is not good for long-term development.
Our company puts quality to the first priority. The reason that our company has been more influential in magnesia market in rencet three years is that our products are of high quality with good credits. Our end users are large consumers at home and abroad, who have high demand for the quality, which is also our guidance. Although the sluggish economy has some effect on our company we see stable sales. We have built completed inner working system and quality management system by emphasizing on the importance of quality. It is our eternal goal to highlight quality and high-end products to meet the demand of markets. The high-purity magnesia 97.3%min and 96.5%min can meet the requirement according to various standards.
Asian Metal: With exploring and consumption of resource, the reserve of high-purity magnesia is declining. How will this impact the future development of the material and how do you deal with the issue?
Li: We realized the issue two years ago and we have spent two years on how to keep the production and demand of the high-density and high-purity magnesia. We consider using flotation and shower furnace projects as many low-grade magnesite is not fully used, causing pollution to some extent. We plan to comprehensively use the wasted material by flotation technology or calciner methods while meeting the requirement of the standard of 97.5%. In this way, we not only solve the problem of waste, but also handle the issue to produce high-end products. The technology is employed for the first domestically with no paradigm. We plan to employ the technology and launch the project in June to solve the problem of resource comprehensive use and raw material supply for high-end products.
Asian Metal: Domestic magnesia market keeps sluggish this year. Do you expect any upticks in the second half of this year?
Li: The magnesia industry faced crisis in the first half of 2012. Current market is encountering with unsound industrial structure and unbalanced development. The overall magnesia is not of fully independent industrialization with interference of foreign investors to make the industry perfect. Both the raw material and magnesia brick deep processing need the cooperation at home and abroad. The steel and cement markets will not keep weak for a long time. I am positive about the recovery of the magnesia market in the second half of this year.
Asian Metal: The price of magnesia is difficult to go up despite rising costs. What do you think of the future prices of the material?
Li: The current price is not reasonable as the production costs of caustic calcined magnesia and high-purity magnesia do not match with the market figure. The rate is difficult to rise while the costs keep high, even if the resource tax and policies are adjusted. I think that the reason lies in the industrial norm. The price should be determined by the market, but the market is now lacking normative order. We will face the issue of resource exhaustion someday, but there is no substitute for the resource. Hence, the price of magnesia is certain to come to a reasonable level with the development of the market.
Asian Metal: Do you have any suggestions on sustainable development of magnesia industry?
Li: The biggest problem that we are going to face with is the comprehensive usage of magnesite resources as the quantity of materials is decreasing year by year. Therefore, we should improve relevant technology and develop new method for industrial upgrading on the premise of ensuring products quality. Meanwhile, it is necessary to have standardized market order. On top of that, lacking of talents and reserve of talantes in magnesia industry is the biggest problem we are facing with, and very few talents have been developed by universities, while researchers and designers are scarce as well. As a result, human resource strategy is the most crucial part in magnesia industry sustainable development.
Asian Metal: I’m very appreciated for your support to have this interview and wish your company can have excellent development.
Li: Thank you.
Li: The financial crisis hit the world in 2008 and Chinese government took many macro policies to stimulate the economy, faced with the impact it imposed to the industry. The crisis is severe this year as some industries have difficulty in operation, which will have bad effect on production, sales and the price. However, I think that it is also a challenge for enterprises to deal with the crisis as difficulty always goes together with challenge. We can find way to survive by improving the quality and technology, optimizing management and promoting innovative talents.
Asian Metal: With more companies involved in magnesia industry, competition becomes fiercer.What do you think are advantages of your company?
Li: The quality is the most important as the product belongs to extensive form, mainly relying on resources and management also plays a key role. As a result, the refractory plants are dispersed, some of which are private and the others are large. Those small companies can make more profits with low costs, but to end users such as large mills, cement plants, glassworks, they pay more attention on quality. If the company only cares about the short-term interest, selling while producing, it is not good for long-term development.
Our company puts quality to the first priority. The reason that our company has been more influential in magnesia market in rencet three years is that our products are of high quality with good credits. Our end users are large consumers at home and abroad, who have high demand for the quality, which is also our guidance. Although the sluggish economy has some effect on our company we see stable sales. We have built completed inner working system and quality management system by emphasizing on the importance of quality. It is our eternal goal to highlight quality and high-end products to meet the demand of markets. The high-purity magnesia 97.3%min and 96.5%min can meet the requirement according to various standards.
Asian Metal: With exploring and consumption of resource, the reserve of high-purity magnesia is declining. How will this impact the future development of the material and how do you deal with the issue?
Li: We realized the issue two years ago and we have spent two years on how to keep the production and demand of the high-density and high-purity magnesia. We consider using flotation and shower furnace projects as many low-grade magnesite is not fully used, causing pollution to some extent. We plan to comprehensively use the wasted material by flotation technology or calciner methods while meeting the requirement of the standard of 97.5%. In this way, we not only solve the problem of waste, but also handle the issue to produce high-end products. The technology is employed for the first domestically with no paradigm. We plan to employ the technology and launch the project in June to solve the problem of resource comprehensive use and raw material supply for high-end products.
Asian Metal: Domestic magnesia market keeps sluggish this year. Do you expect any upticks in the second half of this year?
Li: The magnesia industry faced crisis in the first half of 2012. Current market is encountering with unsound industrial structure and unbalanced development. The overall magnesia is not of fully independent industrialization with interference of foreign investors to make the industry perfect. Both the raw material and magnesia brick deep processing need the cooperation at home and abroad. The steel and cement markets will not keep weak for a long time. I am positive about the recovery of the magnesia market in the second half of this year.
Asian Metal: The price of magnesia is difficult to go up despite rising costs. What do you think of the future prices of the material?
Li: The current price is not reasonable as the production costs of caustic calcined magnesia and high-purity magnesia do not match with the market figure. The rate is difficult to rise while the costs keep high, even if the resource tax and policies are adjusted. I think that the reason lies in the industrial norm. The price should be determined by the market, but the market is now lacking normative order. We will face the issue of resource exhaustion someday, but there is no substitute for the resource. Hence, the price of magnesia is certain to come to a reasonable level with the development of the market.
Asian Metal: Do you have any suggestions on sustainable development of magnesia industry?
Li: The biggest problem that we are going to face with is the comprehensive usage of magnesite resources as the quantity of materials is decreasing year by year. Therefore, we should improve relevant technology and develop new method for industrial upgrading on the premise of ensuring products quality. Meanwhile, it is necessary to have standardized market order. On top of that, lacking of talents and reserve of talantes in magnesia industry is the biggest problem we are facing with, and very few talents have been developed by universities, while researchers and designers are scarce as well. As a result, human resource strategy is the most crucial part in magnesia industry sustainable development.
Asian Metal: I’m very appreciated for your support to have this interview and wish your company can have excellent development.
Li: Thank you.