Global Slag News

Russia: NLMK Group has signed a five-year contract for the supply of raw materials, including granulated slag, to Eurocement group. The contract, which runs until the end of 2022, covers an annual supply of up to 5Mt of raw materials for use as primary feedstock and additives for cement production at seven Eurocement plants. The raw materials to be supplied also include iron-containing additives, chalk, clay and limestone screenings.

“NLMK Group has been working with Eurocement for several years, on short-term contracts. This new long-term agreement has taken our partnership to a new level. It will make our relationship more open and structured, simplify clearing and settlement and reduce the risk of changes in the market impacting the supply of materials,” said Ilya Guschin, NLMK Group’s Vice President for Sales.

NLMK and Eurocement are also exploring new ways to use fine steelmaking slag in the construction industry, such as the possible substitution of limestone with slag in the production of clinker.

Russia: Severstal has ordered four Inba slag granulation plants with dynamic dewatering of the slag sand from Paul Wurth as part of a contract for design and supply of technology and equipment for the reline of Blast Furnace No. 5 ‘Severyanka’ at Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant. Severstal’s installations will be the first use of this technology in Russia.

“The fifth blast furnace has been operating for over 14 years and this refurbishment project is expected to more than double its lifespan," said Alexander Shevelev, chief executive officer of Severstal.

The order also includes a Bell Less Top charging system with a hopper volume of 80m3 and a chute transmission gearbox with a pressurised cooling system. The blast furnace top gas will be cleaned by a Paul Wurth two-stage top gas cleaning plant. Auxiliary facilities at the plant will be built in 2018 and 2019 and the main equipment will be installed in 2020.

India: UltraTech Cement has commissioned 0.3Mt/yr slag cement grinding mill at its grinding plant at Patliputra in Bihar. The new capacity is intended to meet demand for slag cement in eastern India. With the expansion of the plant the cement producer has a production capacity of 70.6Mt/yr.

Turkey: Harsco and Tosyali Holding, a flat steel and steel pipe producer, have started a joint venture relationship for metal recovery services and slag sales at the Toscelik Osmaniye flat steel plant, a unit owned by Tosyali. The agreement with Tosyali marks Harsco’s first entry into Turkey’s steelmaking sector.

“Since slag disposal is one of the main challenges of the Turkish steel industry, we aim to recycle and recover these slag wastes,” said Tosyali’s board chairman Fuat Tosyali. He added the two companies intend to increase the number of slag disposal units in the country to handle 1.2Mt/yr of slag.

UK: Kostas Koutselas has been appointed as the Group Technology Manager at David Ball Group. Previously he worked in senior technical and research roles for Aggregate Industries, Unibeton and Fosroc, including international positions in Dubai and Qatar.