General Refractories Co.
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This page was last updated on September 18, 2024.
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Overview
Refractory bricks are special bricks used in high temperature applications where high heat and continued heating and cooling do not weaken the bricks. These are used in smelters, iron and steel blast furnaces, and rotary kilns at cement plants. Products include a wide variety of special shapes that are needed to protect the furnaces. Among the special shapes as cast plugs for smelter and furnace tap holes which when removed allow molten metal to flow in molds.
As a general statement, refractories are heat-resistant materials used to line furnaces in industries that involve heating or containing solids, liquids, or gases at high temperatures, including glass making. Silica bricks and shapes for glass furnaces have the highest level of silica. Silica bricks and shapes for coke ovens and blast furnaces contain additives to reduce the silica level. Silica bricks and shapes used in the glass industry are often standard sizes and can be machine-made. However, silica bricks and shapes used in coke oven and large industrial furnace applications often require hundreds of shapes, many of which are hand molded by impact press or hand-formed.
Instead of using clay to make the bricks and special shapes, the manufacture of silica refractory bricks uses quartzite, siliceous rock deposits (mica schists) or siliceous sandstone, also known as ganister. Ganister is mined in the U.S. in several states including Utah, specifically from quarries near Jericho and Grantsville. The ganister was then trucked to refractory brick plants in Murray and Lehi.
General Refractories was the successful bidder on the sale of the Lehi silica fire brick plant built by the Defense Plant Corporation during World War II to supply the Geneva steel mill. After the war, the plant was being sold as surplus by the War Assets Administration.
The Lehi silica fire brick plant was built on the site of a brick plant started in 1893 by three brothers, Nephi, Joseph and James Slater when they started the Slater Brick Company. The plant furnished almost all the bricks for homes and businesses in Lehi and was in operation until about 1925.
The plant had cost $600,000 to build, and was located on 14-1/2 acres in Lehi, adjacent to and served by Union Pacific's Provo Subdivision. The plant was comprised of one main manufacturing building, a locker building, an office building and a storage shed. The sale included six kilns, machine tools, brick making equipment and laboratory and testing equipment and portable tools. (Lehi Free Press, September 20, 1946)
The following comes from "Utah War Industry during World War II," By Thomas G. Alexander, Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 51, Number 1, 1983.
In some instances competitors already established in Utah saw the federally constructed plants as interlopers competing with private enterprise already capable of serving the market. The Defense Plant Corporation's Lehi refractories plant is a case in point. After the federal government announced that the plant would be constructed, J. S. Stephenson, executive secretary of the Utah Manufacturers Association, wrote to Senator Murdock complaining that two brick companies already existed in Utah and arguing that they could easily supply the refractories needed by the Geneva Steel Company. One of the companies, Interstate Brick Company, produced mostly building brick rather than refractories, but the management of Utah Fire Clay Company of Salt Lake had the capacity to manufacture the needed brick and was upset with the Defense Plant Corporation's decision. Murdock tried to get the DPC officials to change their minds but could not, and the government constructed a plant which Gladden, McBean and Company operated during the war.
With the expansion of 1973, The Lehi plant was three plants in one, producing burned and unburned basic refractory brick, a wide variety of clay products, and a similar wide variety of refractory products, as follows.
- Refractory Bricks - General Refractories supplies the industry with five different types of brick products: high alumina, silica, basic, fireclay, and insulation.
- Refractory Castables - This granular type of refractory is usually supplied in 100 pound bags. It is mixed with water and "cast" or gunned into place.
- Refractory Plastics - In the refractory business, plastic means a refractory which can be worked, similar to a putty. It is usually applied in slab form and rammed or tamped into place. Once it sets, it has the same quality as a burned refractory brick.
- Refractory Fireclay Brick - Both the steel and cement industries consume large quantities of fireclay refractories for use around blast furnaces, steel operations, and rotary kilns in the cement industry.
Timeline
August 27, 1942
The Emsco Refractories refractory brick plant at Lehi was already under construction, with the work being done by two contracting companies, Ryberg Construction company, and Strong & Grant Construction company. Both companies were also furnishing the concrete and aggregate for the Geneva steel plant, which was also under construction. (Provo Daily Herald, August 27, 1942)
June 17, 1943
The following comes from the June 17, 1943 issue of the Lehi Sun newspaper.
Lehi's newest industry, that of manufacturing silica furnace brick, is fast stepping into production and within a short time will be operating on a near capacity production schedule. The plant is being operated by Emsco Refractories Company for the U. S. government and was built by the government to supply brick for the new furnaces at the Geneva Steel plant.
The grinding and mixing plant has been in operation for some weeks and three of the six burning kilns are now being heated up to receive the newly made brick for burning to the completed product.
The plant is one of the most modern types in the country. It consists of a perfectly arranged grinding mill with unloading facilities, crushers, conveyors, etc. and six burning kilns. A modern ventilating system costing $20,000.00 has been built into the mill. Mr. R. C. Conover is superintendent and H. B. Blessing assistant superintendent. At present forty men have been employed, most of them Lehi residents.
The brick are all stamped with the brand LEHI in bold type on the face and it is hoped that the local labor will take advantage of this chance for work and keep Lehi brick coming off the presses for many years to come.
March 31, 1944
"Los Angeles, March 31 - The Los Angeles headquarters of the Emsco Refractories. Inc., today announced the temporary closing of its Lehi, Utah, fire-brick plant, effective tonight. The temporary shut-down was ordered following delays in the completion of the Geneva Steel plant near Provo, for which Emsco supplies fire-brick. Operations were to be resumed when the Geneva plant's demands grow with full production schedules. In Lehi, Emsco plant officials said they expected production of fire-brick to be almost double the present rate when operations are resumed." (Provo Daily Herald, March 31, 1944)
October 2, 1944
Gladding, McBean & Co. purchased Emsco Refractories on October 2, 1944. Emsco then became the Emsco Division of Gladding, McBean & Co. At the time, Emsco had two silica brick factories, one in South Gate, California, and the other, in Lehi, Utah.
(Los Angeles Times, October 3, 1944, "yesterday"; The Oregonian, October 5, 1944)
March 17, 1946
"The making of adobes and later of brick formed an important place in Lehi's history. Adobes and brick were made and used to build homes and business houses of the city. A modern plant now stands near the site of the early brick kilns. During the war the Reconstruction Finance Corporation constructed a large plant for the manufacture of silica brick used in the manufacture of steel. The plant was at first operated by Emsco Refractories and is now operating under Gladding McBean Co., who ship brick to all parts of the United States." (Provo Sunday Herald, March 17, 1946)
September 13, 1946
General Refractories bid $375,000 for the plant and was the highest bid. (Provo Daily Herald, September 13, 1946)
Gladding, McBean & Company of California had operated the plant during the war, and was the second highest bid, at $225,000. At this time in 1946, Gladding, McBean & Company had not yet purchased their later interest in the local Utah Fire Clay company, which had submitted the third highest bid at $210,000. (Deseret News, September 13, 1946)
September 27, 1946
The War Assets Administration announced that the General Refractories company had submitted the successful high bid for the Lehi silica fire brick plant. (Provo Daily Herald, September 27, 1946, "today")
November 8, 1946
The Lehi silica fire brick plant at Lehi returned to full production after being purchased by the General Refractories company of Philadelphia. General Refractories had taken formal possession of the plant on November 5, 1946. (Provo Daily Herald, November 8, 1946, "today")
January 8, 1948
General Refractories was producing 3.5 million fire bricks per year for use by the Geneva steel plant. (Salt Lake Tribune, January 18, 1948)
April 1, 1949
The following comes from the April 1, 1949 issue of the Lehi Free Press newspaper.
The plant went into operation in April, 1943, under the management of E. M. Smith Company of California while the government retained ownership. It was next operated by Gladding, McBean and Company until the fall of 1946. At that time it was sold by the government to the General Refractories Company of Philadelphia for $375.000.
The plant manufactures a silica brick exclusively. The brick are composed essentially of ground silica rock hauled from Jericho, and lime with 6 to 8 per cent moisture. The moisture of the finished product varies depending on the method of manufacture.
The approximately 450,000 brick equivalents manufactured monthly are shipped to widespread areas of the West. Principle consumers are Geneva Steel, Bethlehem Steel at Seattle, Colorado Fuel and Iron at Pueblo, and Garfield Smelters.
In the manufacture of silica bricks, the raw materials, all exclusively Utah products, are molded on a drop and power press machine, placed in the dryer, then put in one of the plant's six kilns for burning. Several hand shapers are used to mold intricate shapes and irregular patterns.
April 13, 1951
General Refractories was one of the world's largest producers of temperature resisting bricks and mortars. The company operated 43 mines and 29 plants throughout the United States and Europe, including the plant at Lehi, Utah. (Lehi Free Press, April 13, 1951)
April 18, 1957
The General Refractories silica quarry at Jericho was being expanded to include a crushing mill and a washing pant to remove the dust from the silica rock prior to it being loaded into trucks, to be taken to the brick plant in Lehi. The silica rock quarry was located two miles due west of Jericho station on Union Pacific's Leamington Cutoff, but the silica rock was not shipped by rail to Lehi. (Nephi Times News, April 18, 1957)
September 7, 1960
General Refractories was making an addition to their brick plant by adding a "silica chrome brick plant." The new brick plant would be completed in November and had been dismantled at the company's former Los Angeles location and moved to Lehi. "Bulk of the chrome raw materials needed to make the chrome silica brick will be shipped in from Africa and the Philippines." (Lehi Free Press, September 7, 1960)
August 25, 1966
General Refractories company is shown as a subsidiary of holding company Grefco, Inc. (Lehi Free Press, August 25, 1966)
March 2, 1969
"One of the largest plants in the area is the Lehi Works of the General Refractories Company. The plant was originally built in 1942 and since that time has been enlarged and modernized. There are three plants at the operation which produce silica, clay, and basic fire brick for industrial purposes. These products are largely used in the area in the steel, copper, cement and glass industries — anywhere a high temperature fire brick is needed. The plant employs approximately 80 persons." (Provo Herald, March 2, 1969)
August 24, 1973
General Refractories announced that the company would expand its Lehi brick plant by adding a new grinding plant and kiln that would expand the facility's production by 15 percent, at a cost of $1 million. The product being produced was known as a direct bonded brick, which was a new patented design that fused a steel wrapping to the underlying ceramic by burning in extreme high heat. These new patented bricks were used in steel plant furnaces to increase the service lives brick furnace linings. One example of the use of the new design was in the open hearth furnaces of the steel industry. There was a growing market in the west and southwest for the new design, which was being imported from the General Refractories plant in Gary, Indiana. Manufacturing the new design bricks in Lehi would reduce the price charged to customers by doing away the the extra freight charges. The new addition was planned to be complete by November. "All of the raw materials for the new brick will have to be shipped to Lehi from all over the world. Some materials come from Austria, Greece, Philippines and Africa. Sea water magnesite materials are also used at the Lehi plant. These are purchased from various parts of the United States." "The Lehi plant's capacity for basic brick will be doubled by the expansion. The plant is unique among those operated by General Refractories in that it serves as three plants in one." (Provo Daily Herald, August 24, 1973)
1994
"AP Green Industries Inc. signed a letter of intent to acquire the assets of General Refractories Co., U.S. Refractories Div. According to General Refractories, the company is being sold because the owner intended to retire from the business. General Refractories' nine plants throughout the United States, which all are included in the sale, produce a range of refractory materials including magnesium-carbon and chrome-magnesia products." (1994 Minerals Yearbook, United States Bureau of Mines)
August 1, 1994
A. P. Green Industries (operating as A.P. Green Refractories) purchased the refractory operations of General Refractories Company, including the plant at Lehi. A.P. Green paid $23.45 million for the separate refractory division which was operated as the U. S. Refractories Division of General Refractories.
March 3, 1998
A.P. Green Industries and Global Industrial Technologies agree to a merger. At the time A. P. Green had 22 refractory plants in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, the United Kingdom and Indonesia. The reported price was $195 million in cash. (Pittsburgh Post Gazette, March 7, 1998)
After satisfying the Federal Trade Commission's anti-trust concerns, the merger was finalized in late July 1998, Harbison-Walker Refractories, as the surviving company, had a total of 32 refractories.
July 24, 1998
Harbison-Walker Refractories, a division of Global Industrial Technologies, Inc., announced the sale of the former A.P. Green Lehi plant to local investors Ray Worthen and Dennis Williams.
(At the same time, Harbison-Walker Refractories closed five plants on other locations because they were seen as being uneconomical to operate at a profit.)
September 1998
Worthen and Williams completed their purchase of the Lehi refractory plant, organizing the company as Utah Refractories Company.
September 30, 1998
The following comes from the September 30, 1998 issue of the Lehi Free Press newspaper.
Antitrust regulations from the Federal Trade Commission forced the sale of the A.P Green brick refractory plant in Lehi, which had been acquired by Harbison-Walker Refractories, a division of Global Technologies Incorporated.
In addition to the sale of the Lehi plant, Harbison-Walker closed five refractories in the U.S. and Canada.
Ray Worthen of Lehi, plant manager at A.P Green, and a partner, Dennis Williams of American Fork, have spent the last few months in negotiations with the industry giants and government officials to purchase the plant in an effort to keep the local industry alive.
Now named Utah Refractories Company, the brick plant currently employees about 20 workers, down significantly from the 120-130 who worked under the A.P. Green organization. Worthen hopes to see the number return to about 100 employees.
"We expect to be in full operation by the first of the year," said Worthen. "We are basically here to supply the western half of the U.S. and be the leading supplier to the world."
At full swing, Utah Refractories can produce 20,000 tons of silica refractory brick in a wide variety of different shapes and sizes, bringing in sales of an estimated $15 million per year. The bricks, designed to withstand the 500-5000 degree temperatures of kilns used by glass, steel and automobile manufacturing industries.
The company owns two mines - a 90-acre mine near Grantsville and a 160-acre mine near Jericho, Utah, from which they obtain a pure silica that produces the high-quality products. They contract with a company to mine and stockpile the silica and lime for three to four months every third year. They then use a local trucking company to bring the raw materials to Lehi.
By 2012 Utah Refractories was the sole producer of silica bricks and shapes in the United States since 1998, when the only other silica brick plant in the United States, Harbison-Walker, ceased operations at its five plants in other U. S. states as part of the consent decree and settlement to allow the merger of A. P. Green and Global Industrial Technologies.
But while Utah Refractories was the sole domestic producer after 1998, there was also a growing amount of refractory products being imported. The factory in Lehi was simply losing its markets and customer base due to cost and long delivery times.
The following comes from the 2014 report of the U. S. International Trade Commission, in answer to Utah Refractories complaint in 2012 of foreign dumping of silica refractory products on the U. S. market.
(Link to U. S. International Trade Commission 2014 Final Report; PDF; 122 pages)
(Link to U. S. International Trade Commission 2013 Preliminary Report; PDF; 85 pages)
One of the findings of the report was that the greatest limiting factor was due to the small size of the Lehi operation, and limited capability to fill large orders within short periods of time. Foreign suppliers consistently filled large orders, with little lead time and at reduced prices. The most important factor was time, reducing the customer's down time and getting their furnace back into operation. Or in the case of a new facility, putting a new furnace into operation as quick as possible.
Despite reporting substantial excess capacity and having a reputation for producing a high quality product, Utah Refractories had not sold silica bricks or shapes for a new coke oven construction project since at least 1998. The market for silica bricks and shapes manufactured by domestic suppliers had collapsed due to foreign imports from China, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Germany. Domestic suppliers had continued manufacturing refractory products using processes unchanged for 40 years, whereas foreign suppliers had updated their processes and thus reduced their prices.
Utah Refractories reported that its sales of silica bricks and shapes to the steel making industry had declined due to the lower priced imports of Chinese silica bricks and shapes and that it has lost its sales in the coke industry almost entirely. It reported that it had shifted its sales of silica bricks and shapes that would otherwise have been made to the steel industry to glass producers. In the glass industry, the vast majority of Utah Refractories' products had been sold as replacement materials for existing facilities and not for new furnace construction since 2009. With respect to the steel industry, all of the products sold by Utah Refractories since 1998 had been for the replacement of materials in existing facilities.
In addition, the use of silica refractory products, such as what Utah Refractories produced, had changed. There were newly developed substitutes to silica bricks and shapes, including alumina brick, bonded chrome refractory brick, cast silica, fused alumina brick; fused cast alumina, and zirconia. Many of these products were higher priced than the Utah Refractories products, but had longer service lives.
The commission investigation found that China had a vast capacity to produce silica bricks, which amounted to "thousands of times greater" than the capacity of Utah Refractories, the sole domestic producer.
At the end of the investigation in January 2014, the commission removed the anti-dumping tariff of 63 to 73 percent on imports of refractory products from China, allowing unrestricted importing of Chinese refractory products. The tariff had been put in place two years before.
Research has not yet found when the refractory manufacturing plant at Lehi was closed, but a review of satellite photos shows that the Utah Refractories site in Lehi was still in use in September 2020, with cars in the parking lot and obvious inventory still in place. By August 2021 the site's buildings and kilns had been demolished and the site fully reclaimed. There was a newspaper article about the company in the February 22, 2019 issue of the local Lehi Free Press newspaper. The site of the refractory was surrounded by Lehi City, but not part of Lehi City.
Lehi City Summary
General-Refractories_Lehi-City.pdf
General Refractories
GREFCO
AP Green Refractories
Constructed: 1942-1943
Address: 2200 North 1100 West
Present owner: AP Green Industries, Inc.
Immediately after the 7 December 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the Defense Plant Corporation (D.P.C.), a federal agency, began constructing defense plants at strategic locations throughout the Intermountain region. The Geneva Steel Plant, which provided jobs to thousands of local people, was built during this period and then leased to U.S. Steel Corporation.
A product essential to steel production is fire or refractory brick, which is used to line steel reducing furnaces and coke ovens. Lehi Mayor Dean Prior reported in the 30 April 1942, Lehi Free Press that the D.P.C. had decided to construct a fire brick factory for supplying the furnaces and ovens at Geneva, on the site of the old Slater Brick Yard.
Ryberg Construction Company began work on the $600,000 plant in July 1942. When completed, the facility was first leased to the California based E.M. Smith Company (194345), then to Gladding, McBean & Company (194546).
In August of 1946 William A. Hauck, head of the steel division of the War Assets Corporation, came to Lehi to inspect the brick plant. He declared the facility surplus property (the war had ended) and announced it would be placed on the bidding block.
General Refractories Company (GREFCO) of Philadelphia, which bid $375,000, became the new owner of the Lehi plant, which at that time included the main manufacturing building, six beehive kilns (each with 100,000brick capacity), a locker/shower building, office building, storage shed, machine tools, and brick making, laboratory, and testing equipment. Wilson C. Rhone, who had been serving as Gladding, McBean & Company superintendent, was hired in the same capacity by General Refractories.
By 1949 GREFCO employed forty-five people with an annual payroll of $110,000. The 450,000 bricks manufactured monthly at the plant were shipped to Geneva Steel, Bethlehem Pacific Coast Steel Corporation (Seattle), Columbia Steel (Pittsburg, California), Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation (Pueblo), and the American Smelting and Refining Company (Garfield, Utah).
In 1973 Ralph V. Lawrence, division vice-president and general manager of GREFCO, announced a one-million-dollar expansion program at the Lehi Works. The new grinding and burning facility, which created fifteen additional jobs, specialized in direct bonded brick wrapped in steel casing. This product, previously available only from a Gary, Indiana plant, is made by heating the raw materials until they fuse together without a bonding agent. This process (patented by GREFCO) allows the brick to be used in the hottest applications such as Geneva Steel's open-hearth furnaces. This prolongs the life of the brick by preventing the furnace gas from circulating in the brick linings.
Recently the company was sold to A.P. Green Industries which continues to manufacture several hundred varieties and sizes of brick. Products range from nine-inch brick to intricate shapes and skews. Despite advancements in mechanization, much of the work at the brick plant is still done by hand. Staking the kilns, which must withstand temperatures of over 3,000 degrees, for example, requires five days. The oven is then heated to 2,720 degrees for approximately ten days. Cooling requires another ten days and the removal of the brick an additional five days.
In recent years the company has expanded its clientele beyond Geneva Steel, which has been a rather inconsistent buyer at times because of steel market fluctuations. The plant now supplies dozens of other mills and factories around the country. Raw materials for A.P. Green's brick are shipped to Lehi from a multitude of exotic places including Austria, Greece, the Philippines, and Africa.
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