US: Heidelberg Materials North America has entered into an agreement to acquire Delaware-based Walan Specialty Construction Products. The company operates the 150,000t/yr Port of Wilmington slag grinding plant. Heidelberg Materials North America will integrate the business into its slag cement production operations.
South Korea: The Korea Ready-mixed Concrete Industry Cooperative Federation (KORMIC) has signed an agreement with steel producer POSCO and its decarbonisation division POSCO Eco & Challenge for the use of recycled steel by-products in ready-mixed concrete. The initiative will involve joint mix design reviews and other research and development projects by KORMIC members, with technical support from POSCO.
UK: The Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) has poured 15m³ of 49% reduced-CO₂ graphene-enhanced concrete at a Northumbrian Water wastewater treatment facility. The concrete, called Combining Micronised Limestone and Graphene (GEIC), features a ternary cement blend containing ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and micronised limestone. The graphene-enhanced product achieved a 28-day compressive strength of 78.3N/mm², close to that of concrete produced using CEM-I cement. Eureka Magazine News has reported that the GEIC developed the formula at Cemex UK’s National Technical Centre in Long Itchington, Warwickshire. Cemex UK previously supplied its i-Con maturity monitoring system for a demonstration pour of GEIC concrete. Sika UK and construction firm Galliford Try also participated in the latest project.
Ireland: Researchers at the Technological University Dublin are leading a project to assess the potential to reduce the amount of cement used in concrete blends in Ireland. Led by Dr Niall Holmes, Discipline Lead (Structural Engineering), the Alternative Irish-based Materials Suitable as Cementitious Binders project is partnering with numerous industrial partners – including cement producers Breedon and Mannok. It will assess the potential to use fly ash, calcined clays, recycled glass powder and imported slags to partially substitute for cement in concrete products.
The project has received funding from Construct Innovate, part of Enterprise Ireland, which is the Irish government’s enterprise development agency. As well as assessing the quantities of available alternative raw materials, the project will also advocate for the adoption of performance-based standards at the national and EU levels so that alternative concrete blends can be brought to market rapidly and be exported from Ireland to elsewhere in the EU.
The project is running from January 2025 until December 2025. Any party wishing to contribute should contact the publisher in the first instance.
