Ceramics Industry
SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN OIL PRICE TRENDS

Corporate
CONCLUSIONS FROM THE BATIMATEC FAIR 2016
ECTS MEETS IN GERMANY

News and Accomplishments
NEW ORDERS FOR BIOMASS HEAT GENERATORS IN MOROCCO

The price of Brent crude, which serves as a benchmark for two-thirds of all crude traded around the world (basically all oil except that from the former Soviet Union), has revealed a significant price increase since the beginning of the year – from a low of $30 a barrel to over $50 a barrel.

Thus, after almost half a year of price rise, the change in oil price trends is now definitive, though it is still far from the prices reached in 2008, at $140 a barrel.

The reasons for this return to high prices are complex, since the price of crude is not merely a matter of supply and demand but also responds to geopolitical aspects. However, one thing is certain: the ceramics industry’s main expense is energy, and the price of Brent influences and drags the price of all other fuels along with it.

Energy inefficiency will become more and more expensive for the ceramics industry, which is why the combustion systems and fuels available must be reassessed.

BERALMAR was present at the BATIMATEC fair in May for the 14th year in a row.

Given our experience, we can safely report a decrease in the number of visitors with respect to past editions. This is the result of some degree of market saturation and difficulties financing new projects.

Nonetheless, the Algerian market remains a very important one, which can be seen by the strong presence of European suppliers.

As usual, the fair was very well organized, although just like all other fairs that last five days, we feel it’s excessively long.

What we are absolutely certain about is that BERALMAR will once again be present at the next edition in 2017.

On 20 May the main European suppliers of the ceramics industry, members of the ECTS association, met in Pforzheim, Germany.

ECTS holds two meetings annually, and this one was the first with the new general secretary, Christoph Danner.

The rendezvous began the day before the meeting with a cultural visit to the Maulbronn Monastery, one of the best conserved Cistercian monasteries in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and concluded with a lively association dinner.

Among the topics discussed during the meeting were the upcoming ceramics symposiums organized by ECTS, planned for 19 October in Isfahan, Iran, and 27 February 2017 in Madurai, India. BERALMAR will take part in both symposiums, details to be provided later.

From these lines we would like to thank HÄNDLE, the host of this reunion, for its hospitality. The next ECTS meeting, hosted by SABO, will take place in November in Greece.

This year BERALMAR has been receiving orders for clean hot air generation equipment for dryers in Morocco, based on biomass.

Olive pomace is a widely available biomass in Morocco, although it presents the disadvantage of chemical attacks by combustion fumes on metal pieces of the dryers (metal shelves, fans, etc.).

For this reason, BERALMAR is currently supplying three ceramics plants in northern Morocco with various solutions for efficient combustion of olive pomace first in a combustion chamber and then in a separate, unconventional heat exchanger, specifically designed to:

- Withstand the chemical attacks produced by the combustion fumes from olive pomace.
- Offer easy maintenance of ash removal and cleaning of the heat exchange tubes.

BERALMAR offers all kinds of solutions for hot air generation for dryers, and for all kinds of fuel: gas, fuel-oil, coal, petcoke and both direct combustion biomass as well as heat exchange biomass (clean, hot air generation). In addition to the ceramics industry, BERALMAR also has extensive experience with this equipment in the agricultural sector.

Including orders received this year, there are now 12 dryers in Morocco, equipped with biomass solutions for hot air generation designed by BERALMAR.