France: Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal is on schedule to restart a newly-upgraded Blast Furnace 1 at its Fos-sur-Mer steelworks in Bouches-du-Rhône in June 2026. The company said that the move is a response to the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and supporting import restrictions. It will finance the project from its €90m site investment budget for 2026.
Tanzania: Finland-based Betolar has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Australia-based EcoGraf and the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) and to assess the use of tailings from EcoGraf's upcoming Epanko graphite mine in Morogoro Region as an alternative binder. Betolar says that its technology will increase the recovery of metals from the Epanko site’s 900,000t/yr of mine tailings.
UK: Holcim UK has appointed Krish Patel as plant manager of its upcoming cement facility at Tilbury in Essex. When commissioned in mid-2026, the facility will consist of a terminal on the River Thames, equipped with six loading heads and five weighbridges, and production facilities for ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and EcoPlanet 30% reduced-CO2 sulphate-resistant cement. Civil engineering work is already complete and structural and mechanical installation is underway. Holcim UK described the upcoming Tilbury facility as a ‘key hub’ in its future supply of cement to the South of England.
Krish Patel said "Tilbury will be a flagship terminal not only for Holcim, but for the wider industry."
Patel rejoined Holcim UK in March 2025 from Heidelberg Materials UK, where he managed the Purfleet grinding plant in Essex. He originally trained as a manager in Holcim UK’s asphalt operations in Greenwich, London, before which time he was an international sales representative at specialist electronics provider Advanced Power Components. Patel holds a bachelor’s degree in Mineral Products from the University of Derby.
Sweden/India: Sweden-based Cemvision has received a grant from the Swedish Energy Agency to conduct a joint feasibility study with India-based Tata Steel to transform basic oxygen furnace (BOF) and electric arc furnace (EAF) slags into feedstocks for near-zero-CO₂ cement. The 10 – 12-month study will assess the technical and economic viability of a scalable slag valorisation model, ahead of a planned demonstration facility at a Tata Steel site.
Cemvision CEO Oscar Hållén said “Being able to turn environmental liabilities into valuable resources at scale is exactly the kind of climate innovation heavy industry needs. In partnership with Tata Steel, we hope to show how steel slag can become a cornerstone in near-zero CO₂ cement, while metals are recovered and returned to steel production.”
The project is part of the India-Sweden Industry Transition Partnership (ITP), announced during the COP30 global decarbonisation summit in Belém, Brazil, in November 2025. Tata Steel also received a grant from India’s Department of Science and Technology, with additional partners including the Indian Institute of Technology’s Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad and cement producer JK Cement.
