India: Union officials at the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) have asked for an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into an alleged fixing of the price of blast furnace granulated slag (BFGS). The RSP claims that it couldn’t sell its slag by electronic auction due to limited storage space, lack of rail transport logistics and low market price of BFGS, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. However, sources quoted by the newspaper say that the plant had sufficient storage space and that at least three times as much railway cargo capacity was available as the RSP has indicated. It is estimated that it undersold its product by at least US$15.5m. Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram has also accused the steelmaker of favouring local cement producer OCL India in the scheme.

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.