The Levantina Group was founded in 1959 to meet market demand for stone building materials. It oversees the entire supply chain and has its own quarries, factories and distribution centers. Since then the company has grown steadily to become a world leader in the natural stone sector.
Its key strengths include an unmatched supply-side capacity (it has numerous quarries in Alicante, Lorca, Porriño, Brazil, etc.), competitiveness and constant innovation, the result of its eight production facilities where it develops state-of-the-art technology. Moreover, 19 distribution warehouses ensure a country-wide presence and the firm exports to over 100 countries.
In addition to being the world’s number one in natural stone, Levantina Group is also renowned for the pioneering spirit with which it strives to meet the needs of the industry. In 2007 its Techlam® brand produced Spain’s first sintered stone slab. Now, in Castellón, it’s strengthening its position in this sector together with SACMI by building a new large ceramic slab plant that features a SACMI FMA ‘Maestro’ kiln and dryer.
The customer
Levantina Group has been leading the global natural stone sector since 1959. It operates along the entire supply chain (from extraction to final distribution).
The group includes the world-renowned Naturamia®, Techlam® and Pavex® brands.
The all-new Levantina Techlam plant, established after the takeover of industrial assets belonging to Keros Ceramica, in Nules (Castellón), is a huge €55 million investment, one in which SACMI is the key technology provider with its complete kiln and dryer systems.
The partnership
Levantina Techlam chose SACMI because of its unique reputation on the Spanish market: one built on unmatched reliability, quality and efficiency.
“For our new plant”, observes the head of Levantina Techlam, José Manuel Herraiz, “we’ve chosen the best in the business. The SACMI kiln and dryer lets us focus on the recognized quality of our product and, at the same time, provides the highest efficiency, as consumption levels on these machines clearly show”.
Levantina has gone for the 195.3 meter FMA 217 kiln, equipped with a 12.6 meter EUP 217 pre-dryer. This is presently the best-selling model in the world. The FMA SACMI Maestro kiln stands out for its modulated air-gas control which improves firing quality and lowers consumption.
Upstream from the kiln, the new Levantina plant features the 51.5-metre E7P 200 7-level horizontal dryer, with relative inflow and outflow automation.
The plant will be used to manufacture 1600x3200 slabs between 6 and 20 mm thick: the Maestro kiln will deliver perfect firing on larger formats, optimize consumption and provide latest-generation heat recovery systems.
The context
In Spain, those in the industry see SACMI kilns as the ultimate in technology, reliability and performance. The numbers speak for themselves: 9 SACMI kilns for large slabs installed since 2020, bringing the total number of SACMI kilns of this type in Spain to 18 (and the installed pool to 27).
Customers include practically all the major players on the Spanish large-slab market.
In addition to technology, SACMI supports customers with excellent service. Crucial to that service is SACMI Iberica, which has around 120 employees and, in 2022, celebrated its first 40 years of success.