Lime industry prepares for difficult years

The meeting of the Bundesverband der Deutschen Kalk­industrie (Federal German Association of the Lime ­Industry, German abbreviation: BVK) held in Weimar on 19.06.2009 unanimously elected Michael Liell, CFO of Rheinkalk GmbH, ­Wülfrath, as the chairman of the Bundesverband der Deutschen Kalkindustrie e.  V., Cologne. Moritz Iseke, CEO of Kalkwerke Oetelshofen, Wuppertal/Germany, was chosen as the new deputy chairman of the association (Fig. 1).

Like its principal customer groups - the iron, steel, chemicals and building materials industries - the lime industry has been hit extremely hard by the current economic crisis. Although trading in 2008 remained practically at the same level as the preceding year, with sales of 21 million tonnes of unburnt products, a decline of  6 %, and sales of burnt products just on 7 million tonnes, the regression was already perceptible in the fourth quarter. The figures for the first quarter of 2009, unfortunately, clearly illustrate that the sharp downturn apparent since November 2008 is continuing into 2009, and with an accelerating trend. In March, the industry was confronted with a decline in sales to the chemicals industry of over 20  % compared to March 2008.

In sales to the iron and steel industry, the fall in business amounted to no less than 59.9  % compared to the same month in the previous year. This, inevitably, will also force companies in the industry to reduce staff. Despite the fact that lime is a vital input material for industry, and also for environmental protection, the lime industry is anticipating significantly lower sales figures in the mid-term, after a certain degree of recovery on the market. The Bundesverband der Deutschen Kalkindustrie is prepared. “Further organizational rationalization and concentration of tasks and functions will enable us to weather the market crisis”, comments chairman Michael Liell. As he continued, “The lime industry is monitoring this crisis realistically, but not with des­pair. A strong lime industry association is needed in Germany, in order to continue playing our role in modulating the many and diverse demands coming from Berlin and Brussels for the benefit of our industry”.

Senior manager Martin Ogilvie presented in Weimar the detailed Bundesverband der Deutschen Kalkindustrie business report. In addition to focusing on current activities and research work, the report now, for the first time, also features an image section highlighting the full range of the product and its numerous and diverse applications.

During the annual meeting, the prizes were awarded to the Operational Safety Contest (Fig. 2). The plants Hahnstätten and Steeden of Schaefer Kalk GmbH  & Co. KG
were awarded gold, the plants Dornap and Flandersbach of Rheinkalk GmbH were awarded silver and the plants Hönnetal and Lennestadt of Rheinkalk GmbH were
awarded bronze.