Type Aktiengesellschaft Industry Refractories Website www.rhi-ag.com Founded 1834 Number of employees 7,898 | ISIN AT0000676903 Key people Stefan Borgas (CEO) Headquarters Vienna, Austria Revenue 1.752 billion EUR | |
Stock price RHI (VIE) € 22.54 -0.07 (-0.31%)22 Mar, 9:25 AM GMT+1 - Disclaimer Subsidiaries Didier-Werke, RHI Refractories Dalian Co., Ltd. Profiles | ||
RHI AG is a globally operating supplier of refractory products, systems and services. The company is headquartered in Vienna and employs around 7,900 people at over 30 production sites and 70 sales offices on four continents. RHI produces more than 1.5 million tons of refractory products (i.e. refractory bricks, mixes, mortars and functional products) per annum and serves more than 10,000 customers from the steel, cement, nonferrous metals, glass, energy and chemical industries in over 180 countries.
Contents
History
1834 Friedrich Ferdinand Didier acquires a brick and lime firing plant near Stettin, then Prussia, and establishes the factory “Chamottefabrik F. Didier in Podejuch”. Didier thus becomes one of the first manufacturers of refractory bricks in Germany.
1881 Carl Spaeter discovers a magnesite deposit in Veitsch (Austria) and establishes “Veitscher Magnesitwerke Actien-Gesellschaft“ in 1889.
1908 Mining engineer Josef Hörhager discovers a magnesite deposit at Millstätter Alpe (Austria). A German American, Emil Winter, acquires the mining rights and founds the “Austro-American Magnesite Company“ (later Radex Austria).
1959/60 A research and development institute of Veitscher Magnesitwerke is established In Leoben, Austria. Today the worldwide R&D activities are concentrated here.
1987 Radex-Heraklith Industriebeteiligungs AG emerges from the American General Refractories Co. as a result of a management buyout (since 1998: RHI AG).
1993 The two traditional Austrian refractories companies Radex Austria AG and Veitscher Magnesitwerke Actien-Gesellschaft merge to become Veitsch-Radex AG – today Veitsch-Radex GmbH & Co OG, a wholly owned subsidiary of the RHI Group.
1995 RHI acquires a majority stake in its previous competitor Didier-Werke AG.
2001 Deconsolidation of GIT/Harbison-Walker within Chapter 11 proceedings.
2006 With the sale of the Insulating segment Heraklith and the subsequent focus on the core competence refractories, the strategic realignment of the Group is completed.
2007 With the integration of Monofrax, RHI strengthens its position as a full-range supplier for fused cast special refractory products in the special glass market in North America.
2008 RHI acquires two ISO plants from Foseco and extends its leading position in the ISO segment. High-quality ISO products are required for flow control and molten stream protected continuous casting of steel.
2010 Complete takeover of Didier-Werke AG.
2011 Acquisition of ZAO Podolsk (Russia), Premier Periclase Ltd. (Ireland) and SMA Mineral Magnesia AS (Norway).
2012 Complete takeover of Stopinc AG (Switzerland).
2013 Majority acquisition of Orient Refractories Ltd. (India).
2016 Sale of the group company Monofrax (United States).
Products
RHI’s core business comprises the production, sale and installation of ceramic refractory products, the development and implementation of customized system solutions as well as rendering services for the key industries steel, cement, lime, nonferrous metals, glass and environment/energy/chemicals.
RHI offers a product portfolio that consists of more than 120,000 individual articles which must resist extreme thermal, mechanical and chemical stress involved in all industrial high-temperature processes.
The company’s product portfolio covers shaped products such as hydraulically pressed and fused cast bricks, isostatically pressed products and prefabricated components made of mixes, unshaped products including repair, construction and casting mixes and mortars, and functional products which – in addition to resistance to high-temperature – also have to fulfill process technology and metallurgical functions.
R&D
RHI's research and development activities are conducted at the Technology Centre (TCL) in Leoben, Austria. The TCL was founded in 1959 and presently is the world's largest industrial research institute in the field of refractories.
Approximately 165 researchers from ten nations work at the Technology Center in Leoben, a third of which are women. RHI has also established another, yet much smaller, R&D Center in Dalian, China.
RHI holds about 139 patent families, which consist of more than 1,425 individual patents and patent applications, as well as approximately 1,300 trademark rights for about 120 protected brand names and logos.
Management
The RHI AG Management Board consists of five members (as of January 2017):
Brands
The RHI brand comprises a series of successfully established trademarks: