Displaying items by tag: granulated blastfurnace slag

Germany: The FEhS Building Materials Institute recorded total German granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) production of 7Mt in 2022. The institute said that cumulative German GBFS production over the 70 years up to 2022 was 227Mt. It said that, if used in cement production, this would be able to replace 398Mt of limestone and eliminate 227Mt of CO₂ emissions.

India: Bokaro Steel Plant has won granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) supply contracts with ACC and UltraTech Cement. Under the contracts, Bokaro Steel Plant expects to supply 1.3Mt of GBFS from its facilities in Jharkhand for use in cement production in the state. The Pioneer newspaper has reported that the contracts will run until August 2026.

US: Heidelberg Materials North America and Levy Group of Companies signed a granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) supply contract on 9 August 2023. Under the contract, Levy Group of Companies will supply Heidelberg Materials North America with 400,000t/yr of GBFS for use in its slag cement production. Deliveries will begin in early 2024. Heidelberg Materials North America says that it has upgraded its Speed cement plant in Indiana to increase the efficiency with which it grinds GBFS. Following the inauguration of its nearby 2.4Mt/yr Mitchell cement plant in June 2023, Heidelberg Materials North America plans to transition the 1Mt/yr to 100% speciality and slag cement production. Levy Group of Companies will supply the GBFS from steel industry sites in the Midwest Region.

Heidelberg Materials Midwest US president Axel Conrads said “Our agreement with the Levy Group of Companies to secure a consistent supply of slag granules will help us accelerate the transition of the Speed plant to slag cement production and better meet the increasing demand for more sustainable cement products in the growing Midwest market.”

Austria: Rail logistics company ÖBB Rail Cargo Group (RCG) says that its haulage of 80,000t/yr of granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) and clinker to and from w&p Zement's Wietersdorf cement plant in Carinthia by rail has removed 3200 trucks/yr from the road since its start in 2019. RCG's trains deliver the plant's clinker to the Peggau-Deutschfeistritz railway station in Styria, and return to the plant laden with GBFS from steel producer Voestalpine's nearby Leoben refinery.

RCG said that w&p Zement is currently working to increase its operations' reliance on rail, adding "Further innovative transport solutions are already being worked on."

France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies has acquired ABC Broyage, which operates a slag grinding plant in North Dordogne. The producer says that ABC Broyage will import granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) via La Rochelle and supply ground GBFS to its H1 and H2 green cement plants in Bournezeau. This will give Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies self-sufficiency in its raw materials processing.

Co-founders Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann said “Managing our supply chain has always been one of Hoffmann Green's strategic priorities. After securing our supplies of co-products and their storage, we are now focusing on optimising their processing through the acquisition of ABC Broyage and the development of vertical integration.” Blanchard and Hoffmann noted that, besides strengthening the company’s control over its raw materials supply, ABC Broyage’s slag grinding capacity also secures its margins in the ‘current highly inflationary context.’

South Korea: Continental New Materials has awarded a granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) supply contract to steel producer POSCO. Continental New Materials applies technology developed at the Ulsan National Institute of Science Technology (UNIST) to produce clinker-free cement.

POSCO's hot rolled and wire rod marketing manager Kim Dae-Up said "We will continue to provide support so that POSCO's steel by-products can become eco-friendly cement materials and contribute further to carbon reduction."

India: Tata Steel has begun the export of Linz-Donawitz (LD) slag from its steel production processes to Bangladesh. The United News of India has reported that a Bangladeshi cement producer has purchased the material for use in its cement production. China-based cement shipping company Cemcoa will deliver the slag.

Chief operating officer Subodh Pandey said that Tata Steel continually pursues operational and market-facing innovations by creating value out of its by-products, as part of its quest to a sustainable future. It has achieved 100% granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS), fly ash and LD slag recycling.

Australia: Adbri subsidiary Cockburn Cement has approved a US$152m upgrade to its Kwinana grinding plant in Western Australia that includes a slag feed system. It says the investment will consolidate the cement operations at its Kwinana site. At present clinker is transported by truck from the Kwinana Bulk Terminal to cement mills at both the Kwinana grinding plant and the company’s integrated plant at Munster. It will increase its production capacity to 1.5Mt/yr from 1.1Mt/yr at present. The project is expected to save the company US$15m/yr due to better energy, transport and maintenance efficiency when the plant is commissioned by mid-2023. The producer will fund the investment through existing debt facilities.

The upgrade project includes: a bulk materials conveyor linking the Kwinana Bulk Terminal (KBT) facility to a new 110,000t clinker storage shed, incorporating an automated reclaim system, to eliminate road transport and minimise clinker handling using mobile equipment; a slag feed system that will handle granulated blast furnace slag and additives such as gypsum and limestone; a ball mill circuit with the installation of two new cement mills capable of grinding slag and clinker; and a new 21,000t finished product storage, truck loading and weighbridge infrastructure for storage and despatch.

Germany: GMI Global’s Slag & Ash Trade Europe 2020 slag and ash conference will take place on 1- 2 October 2020 in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. Keynote speaker Ana Heitor will give a speech entitled “The Use of Granular Waste Materials for Transport Infrastructure Applications,” reflecting on the construction applications of materials including granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS).

Belgium: The World Steel Association (WSA) has published data that shows a 3.4% year-on-year increase in global steel production to 1870Mt in 2019 from 1810Mt in 2018. The figure belies a general decline in production in most regions: excluding China, total production fell by 1.6% year-on-year to 874Mt from 888Mt in 2018. China’s growth was 8.3%, to 996Mt from 920Mt, corresponding to an increase in its share of global production to 53% from 51%. Growth in the Middle East outstripped this at 19% year-on-year, increasing to 45.3Mt in 2019 from 38.0Mt one year previously. The Middle East now controls 2.4% of global steel production, compared to 2.1% in 2018. India and the US also experienced production growths of 1.8% and 1.5% respectively. The WSA expects the steel industry’s performance to have a staying effect on granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) prices for cement producers in these regions.