Bahrain: Harsco’s Metals & Minerals division has renewed a multi-year services contract with Sulb Company, a manufacturer of multi-sized angles and beams in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Harsco will provide slag management, raw material and finished product handling, and other services to Sulb’s fully integrated Al-Hidd plant. Harsco has provided onsite steel plant services to Sulb in Bahrain since 2012 for its direct reduced iron (DRI) plant, melt shop and rolling mills.

“This renewal signals our ability to serve our existing customers, and further distinguishes us from our competition as we continue this growth phase. Harsco maintains a market-leading position in the Middle East and Africa region, and this renewal reflects our customers’ confidence and trust in our long-standing commitments to quality, safety and employee care,” said Harsco Metals & Minerals Chief Operating Officer (CEO) Chris Whistler.

Sulb is a joint venture between Foulath and Japan-based Yamato Kogyo. Sulb has two industrial sites, one in Saudi Arabia and one in Bahrain. Sulb’s Bahrain-based facility, which is situated in Al-Hidd Industrial Area, consists of a DRI plant, a melt shop and a Heavy & Medium Section rolling mill.

UK: David Ball Group has run a series of trials with Bouygues UK of its Cemfree concrete product at a redevelopment scheme at the Gascoigne Housing Estate in Barking, London. The group says that the trial went ‘exceptionally’ well and teaming Cemfree with Bouygues UK further down the line on future projects looks ‘hopeful.’ Cemfree is a low carbon concrete made using ground blast furnace slag (GGBS).

“We are always looking for new ways to innovate, and the carbon-saving potential of Cemfree is considerable. Initial trials have been very positive and we will continue to explore its potential as a sustainable alternative to traditional concrete – a hugely exciting possibility,” said Jean-Marie Perret, a project manager for Bouygues UK, who is leading the Cemfree trials for the Gascoigne Estate.

India: Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) is repairing its blast furnace at its 1.1Mt/yr integrated iron and steel plant at Kalinga Nagar in Odisha. The blow down process of the blast furnace, which had been commissioned in 2002, started in late November 2017, according to the Press Trust of India. The work is scheduled for completion by the end of February 2018. The unit produces granulated slag, as well as steel billets, pig iron, Low Ash Metallurgical (LAM) coke, nut coke, coke breeze, crude tar and ammonium sulphate.

US: Residents in Anaconda, Montana have put questions to a proposed copper slag processing plant project as part of a community outreach initiative. Premier Industries wants to build a plant to use copper slag left over from the local copper industry to produce proppant, a material used in oil fracking and natural gas extraction, according to the Montana Standard newspaper. The project, first announced in early 2016, is scheduled to start operation by the end of the first quarter of 2018. Questions from the local community covered jobs, the financial viability of the project and increased traffic.