RHI Magnesita Streamlines Raw Material Sourcing Globally

RHI Magnesita operates a global refractory supply chain that serves steel and heavy industry at scale. As the Group accelerated portfolio expansion and post‑merger integration, leadership set a clear mandate to standardise procurement execution across plants and regions, accelerate onboarding of acquired entities, and capture clean data to support governance, circularity and digitalisation goals. In December 2023, the company adopted Metalshub as its central raw material procurement software to tackle fragmented data, inconsistent decision-making, offer normalisation, and balancing governance and speed across its global operations.

RHIM operates a dual procurement model: central procurement manages raw materials with a global character, while regional teams source raw materials with a more regional scope for individual plants. This setup had supported the business for years, but as the organisation grew, the system underpinning it was no longer designed for the pace and complexity of global refractory procurement. Legacy systems resulted in fragmented data, which slowed decision cycles and made documentation harder to retrieve.

Expansion through acquisitions added further pressure. Each new entity needed to be integrated quickly, yet differences in processes made harmonisation difficult. Running several tenders across multiple plants and product grades required a more streamlined process with structured comparisons, where logistics and contract conditions could be evaluated alongside price. Comparisons also needed to be normalised across all variables, with consistent governance applied to RHIM’s large and distributed buyer base. Leadership needed a clearer, real-time view of procurement activity to ensure governance standards kept pace with growth.

This made transformation essential. To restore speed and control, procurement required one standardised model capable of integrating acquisitions at pace, restoring visibility and providing a defensible audit trail for every sourcing decision. The new system had to migrate years of master data without disruption, equip buyers and suppliers to work productively from the outset, and give the organisation the flexibility to adjust workflows quickly and efficiently. Most importantly, it had to create a structured, transparent environment for tenders and contracts, ensuring that every step of the process could be traced, validated, audited, and scaled with RHIM’s continued growth ambitions.

When RHIM set out to transform procurement, it ran live evaluations of several available platforms against its legacy setup. The leadership team was clear about what was needed: a system built for the realities of raw materials, one that could manage complexity without sacrificing speed.

Metalshub emerged as the platform of choice. Its flexibility made it an attractive option that could deliver value at pace, in addition to its industry-specific design, ability to configure workflows quickly, and proven track record in the metals and minerals sector. The fact that the Metalshub team could respond rapidly to change requests added confidence that the platform would evolve in line with RHIM’s needs.

The rollout was global in scope. All procurement teams, both central and regional, went live on the platform in a phased approach, with coverage spanning primary raw materials and key non-mineral categories. From the Americas (the USA, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina) to Europe, Turkey, and Asia (India and China), every existing plant was onboarded, and a playbook was created to integrate new entities added through acquisitions. This gave RHIM a single, standardised process across its global footprint, ensuring that procurement activity was harmonised from the outset.

Within this model, several workflows became the anchors of RHIM’s new way of working. Group-level procurement allowed tenders to be launched across multiple entities under shared terms, while multi-product enquiries enabled buyers to structure lots across grades and plants, attaching specifications and quality requirements directly into the system. Offers arrived in a comparable format, where they could be normalised across landed economics, payment terms, and service levels, giving procurement teams the ability to make decisions on a like-for-like basis. Contract amendments were handled within the same structure, with version control ensuring that every variation was recorded and traceable.

 

Capabilities Mapped to RHIM Challenges

• Standardise terms across entities with group-level procurement to remove variance and enable scale
• Scale complex lots by grade and plant through multi-product enquiries to reduce cycle time
• Secure optimal landed outcomes using offer normalisation to improve decision quality
• Control changes via contract amendments to strengthen audit readiness
• Enable rapid onboarding with master-data templates, supplier registration workflows and reusable entity configurations

To support adoption, Metalshub’s implementation team migrated RHIM’s master data, established role-based controls and trained both buyers and suppliers in the new workflows, most often through on-site support. RHIM, in turn, set a governance cadence that tracked adoption, monitored cycle times, reviewed award rationales and assessed contract performance, embedding the platform as the backbone of its raw material procurement operations.

RHIM’s procurement teams now operate within a single structured process across all regions. Every action, from enquiry to award and amendment, is captured in Metalshub, providing a traceable record that strengthens auditability and allows leadership to benchmark activity confidently.

Quantified outcomes to date:

• 2.0x ROI delivered, with further upside expected as ERP integration and demand planning go live
• €400m+ in procurement value executed on the platform
• 3,800+ enquiries launched, 2,800+ deals concluded and 7,000+ products specifications uploaded across entities

These numbers translate directly into business impact. By harmonising global and regional sourcing, RHIM reduced avoidable work and shortened decision cycles, achieving a run-rate efficiency improvement of more than 2% across core categories. The structured workflow also enhanced decision quality: normalised offers allowed buyers to evaluate price, freight, payment terms and service levels on a like-for-like basis, which led to more competitive outcomes.

Equally important, procurement became scalable. A standard onboarding playbook meant newly acquired companies could be integrated more quickly, bringing spend under management sooner and enabling economies of scale. For leadership, the value lies not only in savings but also in the visibility and control created by consistent documentation, structured approvals and version-controlled contracts, all of which provide a defensible audit trail.

 

What Drives ROI at RHIM?

• Streamline cycles: Fewer process steps and faster time-to-award across multi-plant tenders
• Compare intelligently: Normalised landed costs, payment terms and service levels for better awards
• Scale onboarding: Standard playbook for adding entities during M&A, bringing spend under management sooner
• Control and audit: Version-controlled approvals and amendments reduce compliance effort
• Integrate for upside: ERP extends value into forecasting and inventory control, and capturing existing price lists facilitates call-offs against them

RHIM is already preparing the next phase of its procurement digitalisation. Beyond the core buying teams, internal administration groups are being onboarded to accelerate supplier registration and purchase order creation, further reducing manual steps in day-to-day operations. Planned integration with their SAP system and the addition of demand planning will connect sourcing with fulfilment data, giving procurement a direct link to forecasting and inventory control.

Sustainability goals are also an essential part of the process. Standardised supplier records and specifications will allow RHIM to trace secondary raw materials across plants, aligning daily procurement with circularity and carbon-reduction objectives. The structured dataset will give credibility to sustainability reporting, turning procurement activity into verifiable progress on ESG commitments.

Additionally, capabilities are set to expand. Offer normalisation will become more configurable, allowing RHIM to reflect category-specific commercial levers in its comparisons and sharpen strategic negotiations. Richer analytics will provide real-time benchmarking of cycle times, supplier performance and compliance, while dashboards will help leaders track adoption and quantify value captured across the global network.

The direction is to purposefully integrate where it increases control, standardise where it improves scale and automate wherever repetition slows execution. With Metalshub embedded as the raw material procurement platform, direct spend has become a strategic element that supports growth, strengthens resilience and ensures transparent governance across RHIM’s worldwide operations.