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.

US: Xavier Becerra, the attorney general of California, has warned that Orcem Americas’ proposed slag cement plant in Vallejo breaks state environmental laws. In a letter to Vallejo's planning and development services co-ordinator he said that the project would violate the California Environmental Quality Act, according to the Irish Times newspaper. Becerra also raised issues with nitrogen oxide and CO₂ emissions. The intervention is an unusual move, as the state's attorney generals do not normally intervene in planning disputes.

Orcem Americas’ chief executive officer (CEO) Stephen Bryant said that a new environmental impact report would be prepared to address Becerra’s concernsd by the end of November 2018. The company, a subsidiary of Ireland’s Ecocem, is proposing to build and operate a US$50m slag grinding plant in Vallejo. However, the project has faced opposition from local environmental groups.