India: Tata Steel has launched a new ground granulated blast furnace slag product in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Around 40 potential customers from the construction, ready-mix concrete and engineering sectors attended the launch event. Speakers at the event included Rashid Merchant from RMC India Readymix and PN OJha from the National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCCBM). Other senior officials from Tata Steel were also in attendance.

UK: Rio Tinto’s production of titanium dioxide slag has fallen by 24% year-on-year to 246,000t/year in the first quarter of 2016. The company said that its Iron and Titanium division had optimised production in line with demand. It reported that two of nine furnaces at Fer et Titane, Canada and one of four furnaces at Richards Bay Minerals, South Africa are currently idled due to low demand for high-grade feedstocks.

"In the face of a testing external environment, our focus remains on delivering further cost and productivity improvements, disciplined capital management and maximising free cash flow, to ensure that Rio Tinto remains strong," said chief executive officer Sam Walsh. Production in iron ore, bauxite and aluminium increased in the quarter but production in copper and coal decreased.

Belgium: The World Steel Association (WSA) has forecast that global steel demand will return to growth of 0.4% year-on-year to 1494Mt in 2017. This follows a decrease of 3% in 2015 and a predicted decrease of 0.8% to 1488Mt in 2016. The data is part of the WSA’s Short Range Outlook (SRO) for 2016 and 2017 report.

“The economic environment facing the steel industry continues to be challenging with China’s slowdown impacting globally across a range of indicators contributing to volatility in financial markets, sluggish growth in global trade and low oil and other commodity prices. The global steel market is suffering from insufficient investment expenditure and continued weakness in the manufacturing sector,” said TV Narendran, chairman of the WSA. He added that some emerging economies in South and Southeast Asia show resilient growth and along with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) region and the European Union (EU) will support a recovery in 2017.

Saudi Arabia: The National Industrialization Company (Tasnee) plans to start commercial titanium slag production at its Ilmenite Smelter Project site in the Jazan Economic City in the first half of 2017. Commercial production will follow the project’s trial start-up in the second half of 2016. The announcement delays previous project dates due to the scale of the project and safety and quality issues.

Tasnee was unable to predict the impact the project will have upon its financial results due to the ‘current status of the titanium industry’. The project is a joint-venture between Tasnee and its subsidiary Cristal.