Turkish slag cement manufacturers are looking for new growth in sales following a steady increase in demand during the past four years, due to a sustained economic upturn and wider appreciation of blast furnace slag cement qualities by the construction industry. Progress is slow, however and while opportunities exist for consumption of slag cement to expand significantly in future, the volume of slag cement used is small compared with total potential tonnage that could be consumed each year.
Blast furnace slag in Turkey is produced by three large steel mills and a number of smaller steel plants. Two of the large plants – Eregli Steel Company and Kardemir Iron and Steel Co are located in the northern Black Sea region while Iskenderun Iron and Steel Co is located in the western Mediterranean region along with a number of smaller steel plants.
Turkish steel companies produce about 2t of blast furnace slag each year, of which about 800,000t is used to make cement. The other 1.2Mt of slag is regarded as waste material without any use.
"Currently slag waste is saved at special sites near to steel plants. Nothing is being done with it and this is a problem," commented a spokesman at the Turkish Cement Manufacturers Association (TCMA). "Steel companies are not interested in using the slag, so our association is trying to increase the production and use of blast furnace slag cement."
"Slag cement is used mainly to build dams, underground water pipes and offshore structures. But slag cement still is not widely used here compared with Cem IV type cement. There is a shortage of knowledge about slag cement. This is the basic problem."
Two types of Cem III slag cement are produced in Turkey – A32.5 and A42.5 slag cement. Total domestic and overseas slag cement sales in 2006 were 768,700t of which export sales totalling 65,000t represented about 9% of total shipments. The main overseas markets for slag cement are North Africa and the Middle East.
Slag cement currently accounts for almost 2% of total cement consumption in Turkey. In 2006 domestic slag cement consumption totalled 703,200t, registering an increase of 14.9% compared with 612,500t the previous year. The ratio of A32.5 type to A42.5 type slag cement consumed is almost 50:50. Slag cement in Turkey is normally supplied in bulk, although a small percentage is sold bagged.
Slag cement consumption more than doubled from 2001 to 2006 and currently is about 10% or 60,000t a year higher than previous peak consumption of 642,000t in 2000, after which slag cement and OPC cement consumption all dropped sharply in the ensuing economic downturn. Slag cement demand has rebounded to its previous high level during the past three years along with demand for OPC cement which has been driven by Turkey's lowering inflation rate and consequent economic growth and construction sector expansion.
According to TCMA figures, slag cement consumption was equivalent to 1.7% of total national cement consumption of 41.6Mt in 2006. Most slag cement is produced in the Black Sea region where slag cement factories shipped 492,900t in 2006, accounting for 70% of total national slag cement supplies. Type A32.5 slag cement production was 306,000t in the Black Sea region while Type A42.5 cement output was 186,600t.
Marmara is the second largest producing region supplying 114,700t of slag cement of which 60,900Mt was Type A32.5 while 53,800t was Type A42.5. The Mediterranean region produced the remaining 95,600t of slag cement, all production in Marmara being Type A42.5 slag cement.
Adana Cement Co in the Mediterranean region, which is part of the Oyak Group, is believed to be Turkey's largest slag cement producer, accounting for most of the 95,600t of slag cement produced in the western region in 2006. The plant is equipped to produce 2.26Mt of clinker and 4.1Mt of cement annually. Slag is purchased from Iskenderun Iron and Steel Co and some smaller steel companies in the surrounding region.
The Lafarge-owned Eregli Cement Company cement grinding plant is believed to be the second largest producer of slag cement, though not in terms of installed capacity. Located in the Black Sea region, Eregli Cement's grinding mill is equipped to produce 180,000t of slag cement a year using supplies from the nearby Eregli Steel Company blast furnace plant.
Also located in the Black Sea region is the Bartin Cement Co plant which is owned by the Rumeli Group. Established in 1962 and privatised in 1973, Bartin has an integrated plant consisting of facilities to produce 221,000t of clinker a year and 378,000t of cement. Slag is believed to be supplied to Bartin from Kardemir Steel Works, which is also thought to supply slag to the Karcimsa cement factory.
Another slag cement producer located in the Black Sea region is the Karçimsa çimento Sanayi ve Ticaret slag cement grinding plant, which is designed to produce 400,000t per year. Karçimsa is a joint venture company in which Akçansa çimento Sanayi ve Ticaret, itself a joint venture between Turkey's Sabançi Holdings and HeidelbergCement, holds 51% of the shareholding, while Kardemir Joint Stock Co holds the remaining 49% stake.
Kardemir Joint Stock Co is owned by the workers of Kardemir Steel Works and residents of Karabuk, the town where the steel plant is located. The steel factory is designed to produce 1Mt of steel a year and supplies slag waste to Karçimsa which was opened in the late 1990s and is capable of producing 241,000t of slag cement a year.
Akçansa çimento Sanayi ve Ticaret owns a second plant that produces slag cement, this time in the Marmara area that includes Istanbul. Located at çanakkale, the integrated plant is designed to produce 3.75Mt of clinker and 6.2Mt of cement a year, of which just a very small portion is slag cement.
Also in the Marmara area is slag cement producer Set Cement Company which is part of the Turkish-Italian SET Italcementi Group. Located at Pinarhisar, the integrated plant is designed to produce 700,000t of clinker and 1Mt of cement a year of which slag cement represents a minor share.
Meanwhile, discussions are underway between various interested government agencies and the construction industry over greater use of slag cement as part of wider efforts to reduce Turkey's growing pile of slag waste. The use of slag cement is already well developed for some applications such as dam building, but lags behind for other applications such as tunnels and waterways. As part of the government's national energy development programme, construction has started in the past three years on about 12 medium and large hydroelectric dam schemes around the country.
"About 90% of these projects are using slag cement. For the spillway they use Cem II and Cem IV cement but the rest of the dam structure is built using Cem III slag cement," the TCMA spokesman noted. "But we do not expect any big progress in slag cement use soon. For the Marmara road tunnel project being built under the Bosphorus Sea, Cem IV and sulphate resistant cements are being used instead of blast furnace cement which would be very suitable for this project. People must change their views on slag cement use. But this issue can be overcome more easily today than in the past," the spokesman added.
Future growth in slag cement use will depend on the cement industry and universities imparting greater technical awareness about the benefits of slag cement use to the construction sector, including contractors, architects and other professionals. In addition, stronger government support is needed to ensure slag cement is used in applications where slag cement has proven superior advantages such as building marine and other waterlogged structures. As part of official efforts to reduce Turkey's growing slag waste problem, greater specifying of slag cement for government infrastructure projects is expected to increase the construction industry's familiarity with using slag cement products.
"Education is growing through more cooperation between the government and the private contractor sector in disseminating slag cement construction technology," the TCMA spokesman said. "The Ministry of Public Works may take control of this issue. Maybe the government ministries themselves also need to know more about this subject."
Efforts to encourage greater use of slag cement are set against a background of overall rising cement consumption in Turkey. Government success in reducing inflation and growing industrialisation is supporting a GDP growth rate of about 5.6%.
Total cement production grew 11% in 2006 to reach 47.4Mt from 42.8Mt the previous year. Total domestic cement sales rose 19% in 2006 to reach 41.6Mt. Per capita cement consumption is now 600kg a year. At the same time growing domestic cement use has caused a drop in cement exports. Shipments to overseas markets fell 27% to 5.6Mt in 2006 as cement producers switched to supplying local buyers.
Demand for slag cement and other cements is continuing to grow in 2007. Planned infrastructure schemes could boost slag cement demand in future if official support is given to promoting slag cement applications. "This is not a bad time for the cement industry. We have estimated a 5% domestic sales increase this year," the TCMA spokesman said, "Most of the increase is for residential housing construction. These are mostly high rise private apartments, not low rise single homes. Cement demand growth covers most of Turkey. There also are some large government projects coming like dams, the Istanbul-Ankara high speed railway and metro rail schemes in big cities. But there still is doubt whether the government will fund these projects or not."
