Europe: EuroSlag, the European association of ferrous slag producers and processors, recorded 17.5Mt of granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) used in cement production in the EU in 2025. A further 1.8Mt of GBFS served as aggregates, while the bloc used 12.6Mt of steel slag, including 8.6Mt in roadbuilding and 1.3Mt in building construction. It supplied its consumption from domestic production of 17.8Mt of GBFS and 16.8Mt of steel slag, as well as draw-down from stockpiles. EuroSlag said that cumulative use of ferrous slag across all applications prevented the extraction of 1.25Bnt of rock and the emission of 330Mt of CO2 between 2000 and 2025.

EuroSlag chair and FEhS Building Materials Institute managing director Thomas Reiche said “We need adequately funded, practice-orientated research, as well as optimised national and European regulations. Examples include the EU’s Circular Economy Act and Public Procurement Act.”

The proposed Circular Economy Act aims to increase the industrial application of by-products and other circular materials in the EU. EuroSlag is also lobbying for EU public procurement reform to give preferential treatment to circular materials.

Austria: Voestalpine expects to complete construction of its upcoming 1.6Mt/yr electric arc furnace at its Linz steelworks in Upper Austria later in 2026. ORF News has reported that reduced-slag steel production will then commence from early-mid-2027. The project, along with an upgrade at its Donawitz plant in Styria, aims to reduce Voestalpine’s CO₂ emissions by 30% from 2019 levels, equivalent to 5% of Austria's annual total CO₂ emissions.

Zimbabwe: Dinson Iron and Steel Company (DISCO) is on schedule to commence production at an upcoming 400,000t/yr slag cement grinding plant at its Manhize metallurgical complex in Midlands Province in October 2026. The Chronicle newspaper has reported that the plant will use granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) from the complex’s steel production. The complex is undergoing a Phase 2 expansion to increase its production of downstream steel products, due for commissioning later in 2026. 

Japan: Nippon Steel has reported that ABB’s Ability™ Expert Optimiser has contributed to lower energy consumption and improved product quality at its 1.6Mt/yr Muroran cement plant in Hokkaido, Japan. The digital solution for control, stabilisation and optimisation of industrial processes has reportedly supported the producer to reduce specific heat consumption by 2%. Free lime was also reported to have decreased by about 10%, resulting in a higher-grade output. ABB completed a performance evaluation to validate the results on Nippon Steel’s operation with and without the Expert Optimiser in place.

Following the first commissioning phase with Expert Optimiser in place, automatic operation exceeded 90%. The system also reduced manual operator interventions by approximately 80% and maintained effective process control during preheater cleaning and other abnormal operating conditions.

Nippon Steel produces blast furnace slag cement as part of its steelmaking business and is moving towards highly automated or autonomous operations. The product is categorised as a low-carbon cement because the total CO₂ is around 40% less than ordinary Portland cement (OPC) when clinker is replaced by slag.

Expert Optimiser reduces emissions impacts further by utilising model predictive control (MPC) processes and AI to predict occurrences and automatically take actions in response to variables such as temperature, pressure or exhaust gas concentrations. Frequent controls are increasingly important to reduce process variability and meet productivity, cost reduction and quality targets.

“Reducing manual operator intervention and cutting fossil fuel consumption are key priorities as we work toward carbon neutrality,” said Hiroyuki Abe, plant manager. “We selected ABB Ability Expert Optimiser because it offered the best path to achieving those goals. We have seen significant improvements in process stability, clinker quality and overall operational consistency, while reducing the need for manual control. We look forward to building on these results with even more advanced operations in the future.”