US: Harsco has appointed F Nicholas Grasberger III as chairman of the board of directors. He succeeds David C Everitt, who has served as non-executive chairman since August 2014 and a director since 2010. Everitt has been appointed independent lead director.

Grassberger was elected to the board in 2014 following his appointment as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company. He joined Harsco in 2013 as chief financial officer (CFO) and has held progressively responsible financial and operations executive positions throughout his career. Prior to joining Harsco, Grasberger served as the managing director of the multinational Precision Polymers Division of Fenner. Before joining Fenner, he served as the CFO of Armstrong Holdings, the parent company of Armstrong World Industries, and later as CEO of Armstrong’s Building Products division.

Additionally, Carolann Haznedar has been elected as an independent director of the board. Haznedar is the recently retired Senior Vice President, Americas for DuPont Performance Materials. She holds more than 30 years of management experience, leading several global businesses in different industries during her tenure at DuPont.

UK: Sweden’s LKAB Minerals has signed a deal to buy Francis Flower. The acquisition is intended to bring a portfolio of sustainable products into LKAB Minerals’ portfolio. Implementation of the agreement is subject to Austrian merger clearance. Both parties are confident that the merger control process will be completed by the end of November 2018. No value for the agreement has been disclosed.

Francis Flower is a family owned business, and the main shareholder is the current chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), Adrian Willmott, who upon completion of the sale will resign his position in the business but remain available in a consultancy capacity during an integration phase. The company will be integrated into LKAB Minerals’ existing UK business under the leadership of Darren Wilson, who manages the UK and European business within LKAB Minerals.

Francis Flower recycles blast furnace slag from the steel industry for production of ground granulated blast furnace slag for use in cement production, among other offerings for industrial and agricultural use. It employs 130 people across four sites in the UK: Scunthorpe, Wicken, Gurney Slade and Runcorn.

LKAB Minerals in the UK has a similar size business across four sites and employs around 160 people. Its main operations are processing and marketing of minerals, primarily for the building, construction, polymer, coating, refractory and foundry industries.

“We have an ambition of growing the industrial minerals business significantly over time, to balance LKAB’s growing iron ore production,” said Leif Boström, Senior Vice President for the Special Products Division in LKAB and CEO of LKAB Minerals group. “This will strengthen LKAB Minerals’ offering to the building and construction industries.”

China: Lushan Conch has completed preparation for a project to use slag and fly ash. The subsidiary of Anhui Conch said that it has completed transport bidding work and had completed an underwriting process to support production usage. The plant is also making arrangements to use synthetic gypsum.

The company surpassed its target of 200,000t for production and sales of cement in September 2018 with 215,300t and 217,700t respectively. 105,800t of the total sales were sold as bulk cement.

UK: Harsco’s Metals & Minerals division has renewed a multi-year services contract with British Steel. The US-headquartered company will provide slag management, briquetting, slab handling, coke crushing and other services at the Scunthorpe steel plant. Harsco has provided onsite steel plant services to British Steel for over 30 years.

“Our team has been working very closely with British Steel since the acquisition of the Scunthorpe Steel Works in June 2016 to develop an innovative partnership that brings benefits to both parties,” said Russ Mitchell, Harsco Metals & Minerals chief operating officer.