US: Lafarge and Holcim have announced further details on the package of assets that they propose to divest in the US as part of their planned merger to create LafargeHolcim. The divestments include:

- Lafarge's 1.1Mt/yr Davenport cement plant in Iowa and seven terminals along the Mississippi River. The units will be sold to Summit Materials for US$450m in cash plus Summit's Bettendorf, Iowa cement terminal;
- Holcim terminals in Michigan and Illinois;
- Holcim Skyway 600,000t/yr slag grinding station in Illinois;
- Holcim Camden 700,000t/yr slag grinding station in New Jersey, along with a terminal in Massachusetts.

The proposed divestments have been negotiated with the staff of the Federal Trade Commission and remain subject to review and approval by the commission. The divestments will be completed subject to acceptance by the commission and to the closing of the merger between Holcim and Lafarge.

Korea: Korean researchers have developed a new cement-producing technology using reduced iron and steel slag.

On 11 March 2014, the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) and the R&D Centre for Valuable Recycling announced that they have succeeded in producing rapid-hardening cement from metal slag reduced during the scrap metal recycling process, adding that the technology is suitable for commercialisation immediately.

Korean authorities bury 720,000t/yr of reduced metal slag in landfills. Using the new technology, Korea will be able to save US$3.79m in reduced slag disposal costs and produce US$254m of rapid-hardening cement. Korea has been relying on imported rapid-hardening cement for more than 80% of its domestic use.

The new technology is also expected to result in a 0.5Mt/yr reduction in CO₂ emissions, as it doesn't require the high-temperature melting of slag that is used in the current rapid-hardening cement manufacturing process. The two organisations added that the world could be supplied with US$6bn of cement if the technology was applied to the 17Mt/yr of reduced metal slag produced globally.

China: Chifeng Jilong Gold Mining plans to take over 100% of the equities in Chenzhou Xiongfeng Rare & Precious Metal Materials through a share offering and cash payment. The target equities were assessed at US$145m. Chenzhou Xiongfeng recycles metals like bismuth, silver, gold and palladium from nonferrous metal smelting slag. Chifeng Jilong Gold Mining will raise capital by selling shares to not more than ten investors and the financing will be not more than 25% of consideration for the deal.

China: China Magnesium Corporation Ltd (CMC) has executed and commenced a cooperation agreement with Pingyao County Fengyan Mineral Wool Co Ltd (FMW), effective from 1 February 2015. The effect of the agreement is that CMC will have a 60% economic interest in FMW, control a majority of the FMW board seats and be responsible for the management of FMW's business.

FMW is an established and profitable medium-sized metallurgy company based in Pingyao, Shanxi Province. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fengyan Coal & Coke Group Company Ltd. FMW can produce 150,000t/yr of ferronickel and uses the waste slag from the ferronickel production to produce mineral wool and mineral wool acoustic board products, among other industrial products. It currently purchases all of CMC's semi-coke to use in its ferronickel production. Any external ferronickel requirements in respect of CMC's recycling and production are also currently supplied to CMC by FMW.