Approximate reading time: 5 minutes

The graph below shows the annual change in 2009 in European housing prices. Although prices began to recovery slightly towards the end of the year, 2009 has represented the apotheosis of the fall in prices that began in 2006 and 2007.

The largest falls in house prices, with two-digits drops, occurred in Ireland, Slovakia, Denmark and Iceland. But more important because of the size of their housing stock are the price drops of over 7% of homes in Spain, the UK and France.

The major exceptions to this general decline have been house prices in Poland and Norway which have gone up 17.3% and 11.6% respectively.

HISPALYT, the Spanish association of ceramic material manufacturers, is currently promoting the creation of a ceramic "cluster" called Agrupación Empresarial Innovadora - Innovative Business Association - (AEI CERAMICS), whose constituent assembly will be held on May 4. This association will be an independent entity formed by equipment manufacturers, universities, technology centres and manufacturers of ceramic products, and represents a joint response from the sector to respond to the current economic situation, through the pursuit of the following objectives:

• Create new ceramic industrialized construction systems.

• Develop new ceramic products to curb the market loss that is occurring in most structural ceramic products due to the emergence of other competitive materials.

• Promote familiarity with ceramic materials in foreign markets.

• Develop sustainable ceramic materials, etc..

BERALMAR has expressed its vision on several occasions and in different media regarding the paths to be followed by the sector to recover from the current crisis, and so it makes sense for it to be deeply involved in this project, beginning with the participation of the Administrator, Ramón Sarió, on the board of directors of AEI CERAMICA.

BERALMAR is preparing to supply a special solid fuel firing system for the BRICK DOTCOM ceramics facility at Kuala Kubu Bahru (Malaysia). It will be a BIOMATIC model, with technology suitable for firing with biomass and with quality assurance based on the MICROMATIC system, with the necessary changes required by this fuel.

The biomass to be used in this application is the micronized dry husk of the fruit of the oil palm, a plant whose cultivation has expanded greatly in recent years in Malaysia for palm oil production. The fruit husk has a calorific value of 4,000 kcal/kg, with a moderate ash content of 3% and will be the only fuel used in a kiln with a production of 500 tonnes/day.

Given that BERALMAR's technology allows the use of biomass while maintaining high quality standards of firing, the great advantage of this use is the reduction of energy costs. The price of vegetable solid fuel varies greatly from country to country due to the wide variety of biomass, local availability, seasonality, etc.

The advantage of using biomass is the resulting neutral balance of carbon dioxide emissions, especially in countries where there is trade in CO2 emission rights, and this can generate additional revenue.

This will be the sixth solid fuel firing system supplied by BERALMAR in Malaysia, and the second for BRICK DOTCOM which already has a PROMATIC system in its Johor plant.