Displaying items by tag: US

US: Councillors at the Vallejo City Council in California are preparing to make a decision on Orcem Americas’ slag cement plant project at the end of May 2019. The council has released a new draft Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR), according to the Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper. However, staff said the document is not ready to be presented to the council for certification and possible project approval under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) due to a lack of information and cooperation from the applicants for the draft status of the report. Planning permission for the slag grinding plant and marine terminal was refused in early 2017.

US: Harsco’s Metals & Minerals division has expanded an agreement with Egyptian Steel, a manufacturer of rebar and wire rods in the Middle East and North Africa. Under the terms of this expanded agreement, Harsco will provide scrap and slag management, material handling, and metal recovery services at Egyptian Steel’s Beni Suef plant. Harsco has provided similar services to Egyptian Steel’s Al Ain Al Sokhna site since late 2017.

“This contract further strengthens our market-leading role in the Africa and Middle East steel markets, where Harsco has been providing environmental services for well over two decades,” said Russ Mitchell, the Chief Operating Officer of Harsco Metals & Minerals.

US: Charah plans to open its second granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) grinding plant at the Watco's Greens Port Industrial Terminal (GPIT) in Texas. The unit is scheduled to be fully operational in the third quarter of 2019. The site is located on the Houston Ship Channel and is accessible by ship, truck, and rail. It will sell materials to concrete product manufacturers throughout Texas and the Gulf Coast region. No cost for the project has been disclosed.

"As one of the leading fly ash sales and marketing companies in the country, we are excited to open this facility that will increase access to high-quality secondary cementitious materials (SCM) in the Texas and Gulf Coast market, where availability has traditionally been inconsistent," said Scott Sewell, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Charah Solutions. He added that GBIT is an ‘ideal’ hub for Charah to use to serve its customers in Texas and the Gulf Coast.

GPIT will receive GBFS by ship and then use Charah Solutions' patented grinding technology to manufacture slag cement marketed under the brand MultiCem. The MultiCem slag cement is distributed throughout Charah Solutions' MultiSource materials network of more than 30 domestic sourcing locations that provide ready mix concrete producers and other customers SCMs, including fly ash and slag cement.

US: Slag cement shipments grew by 11% year-on-year to 3.45Mt in 2018 from 3.11Mt in 2017, according to data from the Slag Cement Association. This compares to 2.73Mt in 2016 and 2.43Mt in 2015.

US: The United State Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that 16Mt of ferrous slag was produced in 2018. Blast furnace slag accounted for about 50% of the sales volume. Nearly 90% of this value was from sales of granulated slag. Steel slag accounted for almost all of the remainder. 2.2Mt of slag was imported. Slag was processed by about 25 companies servicing active iron and steel facilities or reprocessing old slag piles at about 140 processing plants in 30 states.

The USGS said that locally produced granulated blast furnace slag was in limited supply in 2018 due to granulation cooling only being available at two active US blast furnaces. Supply of basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steel slag was similarly affected due to plant closures. As per 2017, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) sales volumes have failed to match increases set by the overall US cement industry since 2010 despite positive long term trends.

US: Harsco’s sales revenue from its Metals & Minerals division rose by 5.7% year-on-year to US$1.07bn in 2018 from US$1.01bn in 2017. Its operating income increased by 18% to US$121m from US$102m. It said that its Metals & Minerals' revenues were positively impacted by higher customer steel output and related demand for mill services, new contracts, higher commodity prices, increased applied products sales and the acquisition of Altek Group. Overall, the group’s revenue and operating income rose in 2018.

“2018 marked another year of successful execution against our priorities and we again delivered meaningful financial improvements,” said chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Nick Grasberger.

US: Harsco has appointed Cope Willis as its Vice President of Sustainability and Environmental Solutions. In this newly created role, Willis will be responsible for driving Harsco’s environmental and corporate sustainability initiatives. He will lead efforts to integrate and embed sustainability throughout the company, and will serve as advisor, subject matter expert, and key influencer in business development efforts.

Willis joins Harsco from PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he served as Director of Sustainability Services. He reports to Harsco Chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Nick Grasberger. He holds a BA in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia and a PhD in Earth Science from the University of California – Santa Cruz.

US: The United State Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that 15Mt of ferrous slag was produced in 2017. Blast furnace slag accounted for about 50% of the sales volume. About 85% of this value was from sales of granulated slag. Steel slag accounted for almost all of the remainder. 2.2Mt of slag was imported. Slag was processed by about 25 companies servicing active iron and steel facilities or reprocessing old slag piles at about 175 processing plants in 30 states.

The USGS reported that the supply of blast furnace slag continued to be ‘problematic’ in the US due to the closure of blast furnaces and depleted slag piles. Supply of basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steel slag was similarly affected due to plant closures. However, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) sales volumes have failed to match increases set by the overall US cement industry since 2010 despite positive long term trends.

World: Global steel production rose by 4.6% year-on-year to 1.81Bnt in 2018 from 1.73Bnt in 2017. Data from the World Steel Association shows that production rose fastest in the Middle East, Africa and Australasia. Asian production rose by 5.6% to 1.27Bnt and North American production grew by 4.1% to 121Mt. European production remained static at 312Mt, with a slight dip in the European Union (EU) balanced by slight growth in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). China remained the largest steel producing country, with 9.28Mt in 2018. It was followed by India, Japan, the US and South Korea.

China: HBIS Laoting Steel has signed a US$247m contract with US-based Harsco for mill services. The 15-year agreement expands Harsco’s partnership with HBIS. The company has provided steel mill services to Tangshan Steel Group, a subsidiary of HBIS, for over a decade previously.

Under the expanded agreement, Harsco will deliver on-site mill services, including under furnace cleaning; slag transport and metal recovery; scrap and tundish cutting; and desulphurisation and ladle slag processing. Harsco also plans to partner with Chinese design institutes to design and build metal recovery and slag processing plants when the steel mill is put into operation. Upon completion, the Harsco-designed system will be able to process 1.42Mt/yr of slag at Laoting Steel. Additionally, Harsco intends to use ‘waste to resources’ technologies to transform slag into products for construction and other purposes.