RHI Magnesita, the leading global supplier of refractory products and solutions, selected its Global Award winners for 2019 from a pool of 120 nominees. The executive management team, together with around 60 senior leaders and over a dozen participants of the company’s Female Network, came together for the second Global Awards ceremony in Vienna to honor and recognize the great work of six finalists. Stefan Borgas, CEO of RHI Magnesita, was overwhelmed by the number and quality of the nominated projects: “My sincere respect and thanks to you for your dedication and your willingness to not only drive our success through your daily work, but also to think ahead and let us grow together.”
The six finalists presented their projects in the three categories Out-of-the-Box, Sustainability, and Global Project. Each team presented its project with a video, and the winners were announced on the stage. Selecting the winning projects from the many great and inspiring initiatives was a tough job for the Awards Committees, which were composed of representatives from different regions and functional areas of RHI Magnesita. After a quantitative analysis, all projects were discussed in detail and the winners were carefully selected by the Global Award owners Stefan Borgas and Simone Oremovic, Executive Vice President People & Culture / Corporate Communications.
The winner in the category Out-of-the-Box was the Golden Dragon project of Wang Lin and his team in China. By creating a cross-functional project team with a bottom-up approach, the team mapped opportunities to achieve significant cost reductions.
Norberto Bellandi and his team from Argentina won the Sustainability award with the “Recycling of MGU” project. The team succeeded in making RHI Magnesita’s RASA plant indispensable for the market with an unbeatable unique selling point: new magnesia carbon bricks containing up to 60% recycled raw material. Each ton of recycled material used cuts up to three tons of CO2 emissions.
The Global Project Award was handed over to Martin Geith and his Austrian team for the New Coating Technology – Spinosphere project. This technology, which is currently in the patenting phase, was developed by RHI Magnesita and revolutionized the market for cement refractory bricks. This new series, called ANKRAL RX, offers new levels of thermal shock resistance.
The honorable mention went to Barbara Schmitz and her team in Brazil for Sustainable Links, a project that aims to establish a good, long-lasting relationship with the surrounding communities at RHI Magnesita’s plant in Brumado, Brazil, by providing labor and generating income for women in the region.
“These awards show that we can learn from each other every day! Only by creating a culture of collaboration and sharing knowledge can we ensure our future success. We are overwhelmed and proud to have such amazing teams within our business,” concluded Borgas.
About RHI Magnesita
RHI Magnesita is the leading global supplier of high-grade refractory products, systems and solutions which are indispensable for industrial high-temperature processes exceeding 1,200°C in a wide range of industries, including steel, cement, non-ferrous metals and glass. With a vertically integrated value chain, from raw materials to refractory products and full performance-based solutions, RHI Magnesita serves customers in nearly all countries around the world. The Company has a high level of geographic diversification with more than 14,000 employees in 35 main production sites and more than 70 sales offices around the world. RHI Magnesita intends to leverage its global leadership in terms of revenue, scale, product portfolio and diversified geographic presence to target strategically those countries and regions benefitting from more dynamic economic growth prospects. Its shares have a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: RHIM) and are a constituent of the FTSE 250 index. For more information please visit: www.rhimagnesita.com
