page_title: RHI Magnesita
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: RHI Magnesita / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: RHI Magnesita Technology Center, Leoben
context_page_description: RHI Magnesita N.V. is a global leading supplier of refractory products, systems and services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
context_section_description: In 1908 Mining engineer Josef Hörhager discovered a magnesite deposit at Millstätter Alpe in Austria. A German American, Emil Winter, acquired the mining rights and founded the "Austro-American Magnesite Company" (later Radex Austria). In 1974 the company was bought by National Refractories Co. and in 1987 Radex-Heraklith Industriebeteiligungs AG ('RHI AG') emerged from the National Refractories Co. as a result of a management buyout. Then in 1991 RHI AG acquired Veitscher Magnesitwerke Actien-Gesellschaft, a rival business founded by Carl Spaeter in Germany in 1889.
  Next, in 1995, RHI AG acquired a majority stake in its previous competitor Didier-Werke AG (founded by Friedrich Ferdinand Didier in 1834 when he acquired a brick and lime firing plant near Szczecin in Poland, and established the factory "Chamottefabrik F. Didier" in Podjuchy, thus becoming one of the first manufacturers of refractory bricks in Germany).
  RHI AG acquired Global Industrial Technologies (GIT) in 2000. GIT had a subsidiary, APG (formerly A.P. Green Refractories Company), which has been named as defendant in hundreds of thousands of asbestos-related injury litigation cases. GIT entered bankruptcy under Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code in February 2002. RHI AG sold its North American subsidiaries, including GIT, later in the year.
  In 2004 the company was required to pay a civil penalty of $650,000 for failing to undertake asbestos remediation at a plant in Marelan, Quebec, Canada which it had been ordered to sell to Resco Products, Inc. in 1999.
  The company completed the takeover of Stopinc AG (Switzerland) in 2012 and bought a majority acquisition of Orient Refractories in India in 2013.
  In October 2017 RHI AG merged with Magnesita, a Brazilian competitor, and then abandoned its listing on the Vienna Stock Exchange and instead secured a listing on the London Stock Exchange as RHI Magnesita. Additionally, the RHI Magnesita shares can still be traded via the global market segment of the Vienna Stock Exchange.
caption: RHI Magnesita Technology Center, Leoben
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