Sri Lanka: Nandana Ekanayake, the chief executive officer (CEO) of INSEE Cement, has called for the regulations on blended cement to be relaxed. He said that some of the company’s Chinese contractors had asked for cements with 65% slag but that the current regulations do not allow it, according to Economy Next. The Sri Lanka Standards Institute has a limit of 20% slag content in cement. He added that there were no uniform international standard for slag in construction cement. He made the comments at the launch of the company’s first sustainability report.

Luxembourg: ArcelorMittal’s sales fell by 2% year-on-year to US$38.5bn in the first half of 2019 from US$39.2bn in the same period in 2019. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 43% to US$3.21bn from US$5.59bn. Crude steel production volumes rose by 3% to 47.8Mt from 46.5Mt.

"After a strong 2018, market conditions in the first half of 2019 have been very tough, with the profitability of our steel segments suffering due to lower steel prices combined with higher raw material costs,” said Lakshmi N Mittal, ArcelorMittal’s chairman and chief executive officer (CEO). He added that the company had recued its production capacity in Europe in responses to global overcapacity.

World: Crude steel production grew by 4.9% year-on-year to 925Mt in the first half of 2019 from 882Mt in the same period in 2018. Data from the World Steel Association shows production increased in Asia and North American, remained stable in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region but that it fell in the European Union. Of the larger individual steel producing countries gains were reported in China, India and South Korea, but declines were noted in Germany and Japan.

India: The Bureau of Indian Standards' Hyderabad branch office has granted a licence for a slag cement product made by UltraTech Cement. The ground granulated blast furnace slag product is for use for use in cement, mortar and concrete according to Indian Standard IS 16714:2018, according to the Press Trust of India.