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.

UK: Fairport Engineering has revealed details on its work on Hanson’s 1Mt/yr Purfleet ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) grinding plant. The plant includes two closed circuit ball mills and a vertical roller mill. Fairport Engineering worked on a project to improve the raw material intake facilities at the unit to replace a storage bunker with a new feed hopper and ramp. In the next phase the bunker is likely to be removed and replaced with a second feeding system.

The new system includes a reinforced concrete access ramp that will allow front-end loaders to deposit raw material into a 30t capacity Hardox lined hopper before being metered, at up to 200t/hr, by a vibrating feeder, onto an exiting conveyor belt that feeds the GGBS plant. The entire installation was completed in six weeks.