India: There are plans to establish four major steel plants in the iron ore rich states of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Karnataka, according to Union minister for Steel, Narendra Singh Tomar. He said that the country aims to acheive 300Mt/yr of steel production capacity by 2030 and the proposed four new plants are expected to contribute with a total capacity of 20Mt/yr.

India: JSW Cement, which has set up a 4.8Mt/yr capacity plant at Nandiyal in Kurnool, is hoping to increase its capacity utilisation to 100% in two years from the current 50%.

"This would be driven by an increase in cement demand from infrastructure and housing segments," said JSW Cement director and CEO Anil Kumar Pillai. The Nandiyal unit was set up with an investment of US$228m. "We are hopeful of using full capacity at the Nandiyal plant by 2017 - 2018 on the back of an increase in demand for cement."

The current plant could be extended to have a second unit of similar or higher capacity, if required. The long-term plan was to have 30Mt/yr in 10 years at multiple locations. For the slag requirements of the cement plant, JSW would also increase the capacity of its steel plant at Vijaynagar from 12Mt/yr to 20Mt/yr.

China: The total amount of steel slag generated in China was about 100Mt in 2014. At present, around 1Bnt of steel slag has accumulated in the country, but only 10% has been utilised for new purposes.

Vietnam: Binh Thuan Mineral Industry JSC (KSA) on 26 December 2014 was given the investment certificate to start construction on a 60,000t/yr titanium slag processing plant. The plant, located on 0.11km² of land in the Thanh Hai Industrial Cluster, plans to produce titanium slag for export to Japan and South Korea, where demand is high.

KSA has been building the infrastructure for the project for four years, from basic design and equipment selection to researching markets and preparing an appraisal for submission to the prime minister. To ensure material input, KSA acquired shares in companies that have existing mines or were already co-operating with existing mines. Thang Hai Industrial Cluster was the first in the country to specialise in titanium processing and is considered Vietnam's first titanium industry hub.