Displaying items by tag: UK
UK: Henrik Adam has been appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Tata Steel Europe. He succeeds Hans Fischer, who has decided to step down from the post. Fischer will continue as a non-executive director and will continue to advise TV Narendran, CEO and managing director of Tata Steel. Adam will also join the board of Tata Steel Europe and report to TV Narendran.
Adam joined Tata Steel Europe in 2011 as Chief Commercial Officer. Prior to this he held a wide range of roles at ThyssenKrupp including CEO of ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel. He has also been a director of EEF (now called Make UK), the UK’s manufacturers’ organisation, and chairman of WorldAutoSteel, the automotive group of the World Steel Association. Born in Essen Germany, Adam is a mechanical engineer who started his career as a scientist in vehicle safety technologies.
Capital Concrete supplies Cemfree to London
29 May 2019UK: Ready-mix concrete (RMX) supplier Capital Concrete has dedicated two 60t silos at its London plants to supply Cemfree, a low carbon concrete made using ground blast furnace slag (GGBS) made by DB Group. It is the only RMX supplier in London supplying the product in this way.
“We’ve seen customer interest pick up recently, interest which is clearly linked to the growing importance of environmental considerations in construction build designs. Capital Concrete is now a leading supplier of Cemfree in the London area and we’re able to supply high volumes of this product anywhere in the London market,” said Luke Smith, the managing director of Capital Concrete.
Danieli and Ametek Land collaborate on automatic electric arc furnace tapping system
30 November 2018Italy/UK: Ametek Land in the UK has collaborated with Italy’s Danieli on its automatic tapping system to increase operation safety and improve process control for steel plants. The Danieli Automatic Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) Tapping System product allows complete furnace tapping remotely from the main pulpit of a steel plant. The system starts furnace tilting in automatic mode, controlling the furnace position during the complete tapping process.
Embedded within the system are two thermal imaging systems from Ametek Land: its Slag Detection System (SDS-E), branded as Danieli’s Q-Slag, and a near-infrared (NIR) fixed thermal imager that is part of the Ladle Level Detection (LLD) system. The thermal imaging systems are used in conjunction with Danieli software to control steel flow in real time.
Q-Slag makes use of an SDS-E imager to detect the transition between steel and slag. It also quantifies the amount of slag that may pass into the ladle. That information is useful for fine-tuning alloys and lime additions for the secondary metallurgy. In parallel with Q-Slag, the LLD system controls when steel inside the teeming ladle has reached pre-set level positions. Back tilting can be done either in automatic mode (when the pre-conditions regarding steel level and weight are met) or by remote intervention of the EAF operator from the main pulpit.
Ametek Land says that its Slag Detection System can improve operator response times and steel consistency at the end of each tap. Those improvements typically result in up to a 25% reduction in slag depths, compared with traditional methods of stream monitoring.
Danieli designs plants and manufactures and installs machines for the metals industry covering the entire production cycle from raw ore to finished steel products. Ametek Land manufactures monitors and analysers for industrial infrared non-contact temperature measurement, combustion efficiency and environmental pollutant emissions.
LKAB Minerals aiming to complete acquisition of Francis Flower by early December 2018
20 November 2018UK: LKAB Minerals says it is aiming to complete its acquisition of Francis Flower on 3 December 2018. It added that the planning acquisition had also received clearance from the Austrian Competition Authority.
Harsco wins contract with Celsa Group
15 November 2018Spain/UK: Harsco’s Metals & Minerals division has won a multiyear contract with Spain’s Celsa Group. The agreement will span nine years with Celsa Barcelona and five years with its Cardiff operations. Under the deal, Harsco will provide Celsa Barcelona with on-site slag handling and scrap management services. The slag handling will include activities for under-furnace digging, ladle wrecking, and hot slag transport. In addition, Harsco’s scrap management experience will ensure the transport of scrap between the internal and external scrapyards, and the management of both sites. Celsa Cardiff will be provided with on-site metal recovery and meltshop services. No value for the deal has been disclosed.
LKAB Minerals to buy Francis Flower
10 October 2018UK: Sweden’s LKAB Minerals has signed a deal to buy Francis Flower. The acquisition is intended to bring a portfolio of sustainable products into LKAB Minerals’ portfolio. Implementation of the agreement is subject to Austrian merger clearance. Both parties are confident that the merger control process will be completed by the end of November 2018. No value for the agreement has been disclosed.
Francis Flower is a family owned business, and the main shareholder is the current chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), Adrian Willmott, who upon completion of the sale will resign his position in the business but remain available in a consultancy capacity during an integration phase. The company will be integrated into LKAB Minerals’ existing UK business under the leadership of Darren Wilson, who manages the UK and European business within LKAB Minerals.
Francis Flower recycles blast furnace slag from the steel industry for production of ground granulated blast furnace slag for use in cement production, among other offerings for industrial and agricultural use. It employs 130 people across four sites in the UK: Scunthorpe, Wicken, Gurney Slade and Runcorn.
LKAB Minerals in the UK has a similar size business across four sites and employs around 160 people. Its main operations are processing and marketing of minerals, primarily for the building, construction, polymer, coating, refractory and foundry industries.
“We have an ambition of growing the industrial minerals business significantly over time, to balance LKAB’s growing iron ore production,” said Leif Boström, Senior Vice President for the Special Products Division in LKAB and CEO of LKAB Minerals group. “This will strengthen LKAB Minerals’ offering to the building and construction industries.”
Harsco renews services contract with British Steel
01 October 2018UK: Harsco’s Metals & Minerals division has renewed a multi-year services contract with British Steel. The US-headquartered company will provide slag management, briquetting, slab handling, coke crushing and other services at the Scunthorpe steel plant. Harsco has provided onsite steel plant services to British Steel for over 30 years.
“Our team has been working very closely with British Steel since the acquisition of the Scunthorpe Steel Works in June 2016 to develop an innovative partnership that brings benefits to both parties,” said Russ Mitchell, Harsco Metals & Minerals chief operating officer.
UK: HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Hanson is supplying its Regen GGBS (ground granulated blastfurnace slag) cement replacement for a project to build a new tidal barrier across the New Cut River in Ipswich. The Euro24m project is being managed by the Environment Agency to protect properties at risk of flooding.
The work is being carried out by VBA, a joint venture between VolkerStevin, Boskalis Westminster and Atkins, and is due to be fully operational by September 2018.
Ecocem Ireland introduces new branding
29 March 2018Ireland: Eocem Ireland has introduced new corporate branding following growth in the Ecocem Group across Europe. The rebrand has been timed to tie in with group integration and new product launches. The ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) producer has adopted a new logo with a company tagline – ‘Innovation Powering Sustainability’ – to accentuate the group’s innovation and environmental sustainability. Ecocem says that the rebrand of Ecocem Ireland, which is tied in with a rebrand across the group, is an indication of the revised focus of the group over the coming years.
“It is an exciting time for the Ecocem Group as there are many areas that we are working on with our innovation teams that will bring targeted solutions to customers across Ireland and the UK enabling them to benefit from using increased percentages of GGBS within their market offerings,” said Micheál McKittrick, the Managing Director for Ecocem Ireland.
Ecocem says it is Europe’s largest independent specialist producer of GGBS cement with a capacity of 2.4Mt/yr. Developments in the organisation have seen a growing interaction across its operating regions in Ireland, Holland, France, UK and Sweden, as well as the emergence of new products. Ecocem Ireland is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ecocem Materials and it operates a slag grinding plant in Dublin Port.
David Ball Group and Bouygues UK run Cemfree concrete trial
07 December 2017UK: David Ball Group has run a series of trials with Bouygues UK of its Cemfree concrete product at a redevelopment scheme at the Gascoigne Housing Estate in Barking, London. The group says that the trial went ‘exceptionally’ well and teaming Cemfree with Bouygues UK further down the line on future projects looks ‘hopeful.’ Cemfree is a low carbon concrete made using ground blast furnace slag (GGBS).
“We are always looking for new ways to innovate, and the carbon-saving potential of Cemfree is considerable. Initial trials have been very positive and we will continue to explore its potential as a sustainable alternative to traditional concrete – a hugely exciting possibility,” said Jean-Marie Perret, a project manager for Bouygues UK, who is leading the Cemfree trials for the Gascoigne Estate.