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.

India: JSW Cement plans to increase the production capacity to 3.6Mt/yr at its Salboni grinding plant in West Bengal. The unit has a capacity of 2.4Mt/yr at present, according to the Economic Times newspaper. The cement producer plans to strengthen its presence in eastern India starting with West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand. The plant manufactures Portland Slag Cement and it hopes to tap into local demand for this product with the upgrade.

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.