Displaying items by tag: US

US: The Slag Cement Association (SCA) has announced the recipients of its 2021 Slag Cement in Sustainable Concrete Awards program. Thirteen construction projects were chosen to showcase the broad applications of slag cement and its impact on creating more durable and sustainable concrete. The infrastructure winners included projects with slag cement supplied by companies including Argos USA, Cemex, Lehigh Hanson, Ozinga, Skyway and St Mary’s Cement. These projects included work on roads, bridges, residential construction, a concert venue, a sport stadium, airports, a theme park and a hydroelectric dam. Two research projects on slag cement from Cleveland State University and Florida State University were also recognised.

US: Cementos Argos subsidiary Argos Florida Cement has won the Slag Cement Association (SCA)’s Durability and Infrastructure awards at its 2022 Sustainable Concrete Project of the Year Awards. The producer won the awards for its supply of slag cement to two projects in Florida in 2021. Its involvement in the American Bridge Company’s SR 679 Pinellas Bayway Bridge – Structure E replacement won it the Durability award, while its involvement in Superior Paving’s State Road 52 realignment. Argos Florida Cement congratulated its customers, who also received the awards.

US: Harsco’s Environmental division has driven its parent group’s revenue in 2021 as services and product demand increased. Its revenue rose by 17% year-on-year to US$1.07bn in 2021 from US$914m in 2020. Its operating income grew by 75% to US$103m from US$59m. Overall group revenue and operating income increased by 20% to US$1.85bn and from a loss of US$3.3m in 2020 to a profit of US$88.4m respectively.

“For the fourth quarter, our businesses continued to benefit from increased environmental solutions demand, and I'm pleased to have met our expectations for the quarter. However, steel volumes slowed through the fourth quarter in some markets, inflation pressures persisted, and labour-market tightness and Omicron impacted productivity. We were able to offset these pressures by controlling our overall spending in the fourth quarter,” said chairman and chief executive officer Nick Grasberger. He added that the group expects to see further improved operating results from its Environmental division in 2022.

US: The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that the US sold 17Mt of ferrous slags in 2021, a rise of 31% year-on-year from the estimate in 2020. Blast furnace slag represented about 49% of the volume sold and accounted for 87% of the total value ofslag, most of which was granulated. Steel slag produced from oxygen and electric arc furnaces accounted forthe remainder of sales. Slag was processed by 28 companies servicing active iron and steel facilities or reprocessing old slag piles at about 124 processing plants, including some iron and steel plants with more than one slag-processing facility, in 33 States, including facilities that import and grind unground slag to sell as ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS).

A further 2.2Mt was imported, a slight decline from 2020. From 2017 to 2020 the USGS reports that 42% of imported slag came from Japan, 18% from Brazil, 11% from China and 10% from Italy.

The USGS noted that during 2021, domestic GGBFS remained in limited supply because granulation cooling was known to be available at only two active US blast furnaces while, elsewhere, only one domestic plant produced pelletised slag in limited supply. Grinding of granulated blast furnace slag was only performed domestically by cement companies. However, following Covid-19 related decrease in availability in 2020, supply of steel slag increased in 2021.

Oman: Jindal Shadeed Iron and Steel (JSIS) has renewed its contract with US-based Harsco Corporation. Harsco Environmental will continue to provide slag management and metal recovery as well as skull processing services for JSIS for a five year period. JSIS has a steel production capacity of 2.4Mt/yr and it sells its products in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, China, Canada, Australia and parts of Europe.

“Using Harsco Environmental’s services to manage our slag benefits us in many ways,” said Sanjay Anand, chief operating officer and head of JSIS in Oman. “We are able to reduce our carbon footprint while increasing our production. Thanks to Harsco Environmental’s operational know-how, safety record and continuous support, JSIS can trust that each service provided is being done with the highest level of care.”

US: Montana Environmental Trust Group says that it has awarded a contract for the haulage of 2Mt of zinc slag from the East Helena slagheap in Montanato New York-based Metallica Commodities Corporation. Montana Environmental Trust Group said that Metallica Commodities Corporation will convey 20,000t/month of slag by rail to Vancouver for export. The volume corresponds to 14% of a 14Mt supply contract with a South Korea-based zinc smelting company.

US: Harsco Environmental has extended its slag management contract with Arkansas Steel Associates. The new agreement extends Harsco Environmental’s previous seven-year relationship for another seven years to around 2028, covering slag and scrap management, slag processing, metal recovery and refractory services. ASA, based at Newport in Arkansas, is a supplier of tie plates to the North American railway industry.

US: Workers have shipped the first load of slag extracted from the East Helena slag heap in Montana. KXLH Helena has reported that South Korea-based Korea Zinc Company has bought the 2.0Mt slag heap from the site of the former ASARCO foundry. The company plans to extract zinc and other metals from the slag before using the remainder in cement production. It was originally created as a by-product of lead production at the site.

US: Harsco Corporation recorded net sales of US$1.85bn in 2020, up by 23% year-on-year from Euro1.50bn in 2019. The group’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 10% to US$238m from US$265m. Harsco Environmental’s fourth quarter net sales rose by 2% to US$246m from US$243m. Its adjusted EBITDA rose by under 1% to US$52.0m from US$51.0m. The company attributed the division’s growth to higher demand for applied products and lower general and administrative spending, partially offset by a less favourable services mix and contract changes.

Chairman and chief executive officer Nick Grasberger said, “Against a challenging market backdrop in 2020, Harsco made significant progress on its strategic, operational and financial objectives. While the disruption caused by the global pandemic could not have been predicted, our teams executed well, with a consistent focus on our key priorities – operating safely, serving customers, preserving financial flexibility and executing our Environmental Solutions business from Stericycle (ESOL) integration and operational recovery plan in Rail.”

US: The US Department of Energy has awarded a grant of US$1.5m to a combined industry and academic team led by Cornell University’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The team will research uses of slag and other waste products from steel production. The study aims to investigate the overall material efficiency of steel production in order to reduce waste. It will explore several avenues, including the use of recovered silica for heavy metals capture at industrial plants and the synthesis of calcium carbonate from slag for use in steel production. Additionally, the team hopes to produce useable iron oxide from the by-products.

Assistant professor Greeshma Gadikota said, “This exciting project directly addresses our societal mission of meeting our resource needs in an environmentally sustainable manner. Iron and steel use is ubiquitous in our infrastructure.” She added that the study is “A unique opportunity to engage and train our students in developing innovative technologies that are central to our ability to live.” The study’s title is ‘Integrated reuse and co-utilisation of slag, sludge and dust with inherent heavy metal capture and nanoscale calcium carbonate production as an enhanced fluxing agent in steel plants.’