Global Slag News

Belgium: Harsco has extended its contract for steel mill services for Aperam at Châtelet for five years. The contract with the specialty steel producer, with manufacturing operations in Europe and Brazil, is valued at over US$100m for the current balance and the extension.

Harsco will continue to provide a broad array of core services in support of the mill’s electric arc furnace stainless steel production, ranging from onsite scrap yard management and slag transport to the handling and grinding of production slabs from the mill’s continuous caster. The extension continues Harsco’s decade-long service at the Châtelet mill.

India: JSW Cement started building a 2.4Mt/yr cement grinding plant in January 2016 at Salboni in West Bengal. The US$119m plant will produce both Portland slag cement and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS). It is planned to be finished in the first quarter of 2017. Environmental clearance for the project was granted in mid-January 2016.

Raw materials for the grinding plant include 0.74 – 095Mt/yr of slag and 1.50 – 1.76Mt/yr of clinker. The slag will be sourced from Tata Steel and the Steel Authority of India. Originally the site was intended for a 10Mt/yr steel plant, according to local media.

US: Harsco Corporation has reported that revenue from its Metals & Minerals division dropped by 19% year-on-year to US$1.11bn in 2015 from US$1.78bn in 2014. Overall company sales revenue across all businesses fell by 17% to US$1.72bn from US$2.07bn. The fall in sales was attributed to a decline primarily in the Metals & Minerals and Industrial divisions due to falling steels and related commodities demand, site exits and currency effects.

The company expects that the market will further deteriorate for its Metals & Minerals division in 2016 due to lower steel production, site exits and weaker commodities demand. To fight this trend the company is continuing to implement ‘Project Orion,’ it’s Metals & Minerals improvement plan.

South Korea: Yoo Gyeong CM has ordered a Loesche mill to grind granulated blast furnace slag at its KyungNam terminal. It will use a LM 41.2+2 CS type Loesche mill with a capacity of 90t/hr at 4500 Blaine. The gearbox of this mill will have a power output of 2800kW.

The scope of supply for this order includes the filter, the fan and the hot gas generator. All of the equipment is to be delivered in 6 - 9 months' time and the mill is to be put into operation as early as October 2016.

Yoo Gyeong CM owns gravel works which it has equipped with its own cement mixing and loading terminals. It currently purchases ground slag to operate its plants.

India: Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has promoted the use of ‘waste’ materials such as slag cement for the construction of roads. He said that the ministry has decided to build concrete highways in the place of traditional bitumen roads, in comments to local press at a ‘Make In India’ campaign event. He added that slag cement costs up to four times as less as normal cement making it a ‘game changer’. At present a few test roads made with slag cement have been built in the north of the country.