Materials & Monolithics
The Materials & Monolithics business group offers its customers innovative products:
- Building Materials: clay roof tiles and bricks and natural slate,
- Refractory Solutions: monolithic silicoaluminous refractories and industrial firing equipment.
The Materials & Monolithics business group gathers the Building Materials and Refractory Solutions Group's activities.
A high-quality, specialized offer
With its quality deposits and optimized industrial assets, the Building Materials activity is France's largest producer of clay roof tiles, bricks and chimney blocks. Imerys also contributes to the development of renewable energies, particularly in photovoltaic tiles.
The Refractory Solutions are composed of Calderys activities – worldwide leader in alumino-silicate refractories used in the high-temperature industries (steelmaking, casting, aluminum, cement, energy, petrochemicals and incineration) – and of the Imerys Kiln Furniture activities, mainly used in ceramics and roof tiles production.
Front-rank market positions
- French #1 for natural slates
- French #1 for clay roof tiles, bricks, chimney blocks
- World #1 in alumino-silicate monolithic refractories
- World #1 in kiln furniture for roofing tiles
Sales 2012969 M€
Employees 20123,998
Industrial sites41
Countries17
The Materials & Monolithics business group has strong competitive positions which it continues to develop thanks to its differentiating technological advantages.
Adapting the product range to the market
In 2012, the Refractory Solutions activity (57% of Materials & Monolithics business group’s total sales) was affected by lower industrial and steel production in Europe (- 4.7% vs. 2011, source World Steel Association), leading to further blast furnace closures. Other process industries (foundry, power generation, etc.) held out better overall. Trends remained positive on all segments in emerging zones. The project activity (plant modernization, capacity extension or new facility construction) was resilient in the first half.
In the construction sector in France, single-family housing starts have been decreasing for over a year
(- 17% in 2012 vs. 2011(1)), in line with the trend in house sales. Greater resilience form the roofing renovation segment limited the fall in sales of clay roof tiles (estimated at - 9% for the entire industry in 2012 by the French roof tiles & bricks federation). In building materials, brick sales lost -14% over that period according to the same source.
(1) Source: French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy
Would you like more information about our products? Visit the websites of our Materials & Monolithics business groups or contact them by email.