Global Slag News

Italy: Finland’s Tapojärvi has signed a contract to supply slag handling and metal recovery services at ThyssenKrupp’s Acciai Speciali Terni steel mill. Tapojärvi Italia will build a slag-handling unit and then start to produce and develop slag-based products. The contract consists of two-year period of building the unit and 10 years of operating time with additional option for another 10 years of operations.

“We have innovative and cost efficient solutions to meet the challenges steel mills have around the world. We productise industrial by-products and develop new business opportunities around these materials all the time,” said Mari Pilventö, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Tapojärvi Oy.

Italy/UK: Ametek Land in the UK has collaborated with Italy’s Danieli on its automatic tapping system to increase operation safety and improve process control for steel plants. The Danieli Automatic Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) Tapping System product allows complete furnace tapping remotely from the main pulpit of a steel plant. The system starts furnace tilting in automatic mode, controlling the furnace position during the complete tapping process.

Embedded within the system are two thermal imaging systems from Ametek Land: its Slag Detection System (SDS-E), branded as Danieli’s Q-Slag, and a near-infrared (NIR) fixed thermal imager that is part of the Ladle Level Detection (LLD) system. The thermal imaging systems are used in conjunction with Danieli software to control steel flow in real time.

Q-Slag makes use of an SDS-E imager to detect the transition between steel and slag. It also quantifies the amount of slag that may pass into the ladle. That information is useful for fine-tuning alloys and lime additions for the secondary metallurgy. In parallel with Q-Slag, the LLD system controls when steel inside the teeming ladle has reached pre-set level positions. Back tilting can be done either in automatic mode (when the pre-conditions regarding steel level and weight are met) or by remote intervention of the EAF operator from the main pulpit.

Ametek Land says that its Slag Detection System can improve operator response times and steel consistency at the end of each tap. Those improvements typically result in up to a 25% reduction in slag depths, compared with traditional methods of stream monitoring.

Danieli designs plants and manufactures and installs machines for the metals industry covering the entire production cycle from raw ore to finished steel products. Ametek Land manufactures monitors and analysers for industrial infrared non-contact temperature measurement, combustion efficiency and environmental pollutant emissions.

China: The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has accused the Gaoyi Iron and Steel Company in Yuncheng in Shanxi province of illegally and dumping steel slag over a 10 year period. The ministry has named the steel producer as part of an initiative to name and shame industrial polluters, according to Reuters. The steel producer was ordered in 2013 to build a slag treatment yard but it failed to do so. So far in 2018 it has produced 0.3Mt of steel slag. Most of this has been dumped on nearby farmland.

Ireland: Ecocem Material’s pre-tax profit fell by 37.5% year-on-year to Euro2.5m in 2017 from Euro4m in 216. Its costs rose by nearly 12% to Euro76.5m from Euro68.6m and its interest bill more than doubled to Euro0.3m, according to the Irish Times. The slag cement producer turnover increased by 9.4% to Euro79.4m from Euro72.6m.

UK: LKAB Minerals says it is aiming to complete its acquisition of Francis Flower on 3 December 2018. It added that the planning acquisition had also received clearance from the Austrian Competition Authority.