India: UltraTech Cement has commissioned 0.3Mt/yr slag cement grinding mill at its grinding plant at Patliputra in Bihar. The new capacity is intended to meet demand for slag cement in eastern India. With the expansion of the plant the cement producer has a production capacity of 70.6Mt/yr.

Turkey: Harsco and Tosyali Holding, a flat steel and steel pipe producer, have started a joint venture relationship for metal recovery services and slag sales at the Toscelik Osmaniye flat steel plant, a unit owned by Tosyali. The agreement with Tosyali marks Harsco’s first entry into Turkey’s steelmaking sector.

“Since slag disposal is one of the main challenges of the Turkish steel industry, we aim to recycle and recover these slag wastes,” said Tosyali’s board chairman Fuat Tosyali. He added the two companies intend to increase the number of slag disposal units in the country to handle 1.2Mt/yr of slag.

UK: Kostas Koutselas has been appointed as the Group Technology Manager at David Ball Group. Previously he worked in senior technical and research roles for Aggregate Industries, Unibeton and Fosroc, including international positions in Dubai and Qatar.

India: Harsco has announced a new Metals & Minerals division contract to provide metal recovery and slag sales services at Tata Steel's Kalinganagar steel mill in a multi-year contract valued at over US$25m. The company will be responsible for developing the commercialisation of slag in the region.