UK: SigmaRoc subsidiary CCP has launched Greenbloc Standard, Ultra and Premium. The new designations correspond to 50%, 80% and 100% cement substitution. Professional Builder News has reported that Using Greenbloc Standard reduces structures’ CO₂ emissions by 77% compared with structures built with conventional ordinary Portland cement (OPC)-based blocks. For an average semi-detached house, this is equivalent to 2.7t of CO₂.

CCP general manager Phil Rotheram said “The expansion of our Greenbloc range continues our commitment to sustainable alternatives to our product offering as we fully commit to the challenges of removing embodied carbon from the built environment.”

Greenbloc Ultra featured in a gold medal-winning garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023 in May 2023.

Denmark: Processing, handling and storage equipment supplier Cimbria has merged its three Danish subsidiaries. A/S Cimbria, Cimbria Unigrain and Cimbria Manufacturing will now operate as Cimbria, effective retroactively from 1 January 2023. The group reassured customers that its existing contracts remain unchanged.

US: HarbisonWalker International has unveiled its new redesigned branding. The refractories supplier says that the new brand identity reflects it standing as the North American arm of Calderys Group. The two companies merged following their acquisition by Platinum Equity in 2022.

Calderys Group president and CEO Michel Cornelissen said “The new visual identity of HWI, as a member of Calderys, is a significant step on our journey to form a unified business that incorporates the best of both brands to create a global high-growth leader. We have undertaken this exercise with thoughtful intention to preserve the legacy of the HWI brand in the Americas, while reflecting the global stature of the Calderys brand.”

India: Shiva Cement has commissioned its new US$185m Sundergarh cement plant in Odisha. Pragativadi News has reported that the new plant has an integrated capacity of 1.05Mt/yr and an additional grinding capacity of 0.27Mt/yr.

In October 2022, parent company JSW Cement announced plans to increase its total installed capacity by 47% to 25Mt/yr.

India: Adani Group plans to grow ACC and Ambuja Cements' capacity to 140Mt/yr by 2028 under a joint expansion strategy. The Hindu newspaper has reported that new strategy includes capital expenditure with a value of US$5.58bn and new acquisitions. Investments will reportedly be split equally between the two subsidiaries. After completion of the current growth plan, the cement producers will 'pause for a while' prior to any subsequent expansion phase.

Adani Group said that it is proceeding with an operational merger of ACC and Ambuja Cements, without merging their distinct brands. The priority of the merger will be to increase efficiency in supply chains and logistics operations.

Canada: The district council of Capital Regional District (CRD) says that it expects to resume sending biosolids to Lafarge Canada's Richmond cement plant in early June 2023. This follows a reported reduction in production at the unit in 2023 and 2022, according to the Times Colonist newspaper. The 1.1Mt/yr cement plant previously used biosolids supplied by the CRD as an alternative fuel in its cement production. However, during the current hiatus the biosolids have been sent to landfill instead.

The Richmond cement plant is the site of the CO₂MENT carbon capture and utilisation project. The project proceeded to its third phase, which consists of a capture capacity expansion and the installation of a liquefaction plant, in May 2023.

US: Denmark-based FLSmidth has acquired heavy-duty rubber products company Morse Rubber. Morse Rubber's competences include advanced moulding capabilities for rubber and composite mill liners, as well as screen media and various rubber and rubber ceramic wear components. FLSmidth says that the acquisition supports its growth strategy by strengthening its offering of mill liners, where FLSmidth has been capacity constrained in some regions.

FLSmidth's service line president Joshua Meyer said “With this acquisition we will be able to offer cost and quality competitive mill liners combined with local presence, local production and proximity to our North American and Latin American customers."

UK: CRH subsidiary Tarmac has pledged its support to the Route to Net Zero initiative to decarbonise the UK's logistics sector. Under the initiative, companies involved in transportation will implement changes aimed at achieving net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050. Tarmac already transports 9Mt/yr of materials around the UK by rail.

Tarmac's logistics director Graham Waters said “Signing up to Logistics UK’s Route to Net Zero pledge marks a further step for our business, underscoring our commitment to eliminating carbon emissions from our extensive UK-wide logistics networks and accelerating this process through collaboration with our haulier partners and the wider industry."

Germany: Global Cement is attending Powtech 2023 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, on 26 – 28 September 2023. Powtech is the International Processing Trade Fair for powder, bulk solids, fluids and liquids. Find us at Stand 2-524 in Hall 2.

Heidelberg Materials North America held an official opening ceremony this week for its upgraded slag cement plant and terminal at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The US$24m project added a new roller press to the unit to increase its production capacity. In a statement Chris Ward, the president and chief executive officer of the company, said that it had made the investment to meet sustainability and resilient construction goals. Industrial Accessories Company (IAC) said in mid-2021 that it had been named as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for the project. It planned to install a hydraulic roller press supplied by FLSmidth. IAC also said it was providing instrumentation equipment, hoppers, bins, belt conveyors, bucket elevators and dust collectors amongst other kit and services.

Other recent US slag cement-related news stories have concerned terminals. In late August 2022 Royal White Cement said it had leased a site on the Houston Ship Channel in Houston, Texas to handle and store approximately 100,000t of multiple cementitous products such as slag, ordinary Portland cement and white Cement. In May 2022 Titan America announced plans to spend US$37m on an upgrade to its Norfolk terminal in Chesapeake, Virginia. The major improvement was to add a 70,000t storage dome, with enlarged truck and railway capacity, to allow the site to import and distribute raw materials such as fly ash, slag and aggregates. Completion on this one was scheduled for some point in 2023. Titan added that the project was similar to the addition of a 70,000t dome under construction at the time at Titan's import terminal in Tampa, Florida.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that domestic sales of iron and steel (ferrous) slags in the US amounted to 15Mt in 2022. Sales were around 20Mt in the 2000s but this fell to current levels in the 2010s as blast furnaces closed. In 2022 the USGS noted that, “domestic ground granulated blast furnace slag (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.” It added that the grinding of granulated blast furnace slag was only being carried out domestically by cement companies. Imports of slag were 2Mt in 2022. This is a decline from a peak of 2.6Mt in 2018 but higher than the period 2000 – 2015. The price of slag, meanwhile, hit a high of US$53/t in 2022. This is the highest price recorded by the USGS since at least 2000. It is double that of 2017.

Charles Zeynel of ZAG International noted in the June 2023 issue of Global Cement Magazine that cement producers in Florida, California, Texas, Georgia and the Carolinas are far from steel mills, so they import granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) and other secondary cementitious materials (SCM). This certainly fits with Heidelberg Materials’ plan to upgrade its slag cement plant and terminal at Cape Canaveral. Also on the US market, Zeynel added that due to rising global demand for SCMs more of the available share of GBFS was being purchased by ‘richer’ markets such as Europe, North America and Australia. He continued that GBFS and GGBFS producers had also started increasing the price of their wares internationally. This too is apparent in the prices published by the USGS.

One final story with links to slag to note this week concerns the launch of the Alliance for Low-Carbon Cement & Concrete (ALCC) in Europe. The group brings together companies producing products or services intended to decarbonise the cement and concrete sectors. Two of the members – Ecocem and Hoffman Green Cement Technologies – are Europe-based slag cement producers. Two other members – Fortera and TerraCO₂ – are companies based in North America that are marketing and selling low-carbon SCMs.

Various start-up companies have been emerging on a regular basis in both North America and Europe with the aim of decarbonising cement and concrete in various different ways. The formation of the ALCC can be seen as part of this trend as the more successful non-traditional cement-concrete-aggregate companies establish themselves. One point that cement producers in North America are likely to be well aware of is that concrete is becoming less linked to clinker as the cost of carbon mounts and the clinker factor of cement lowers. Slag supplies may be finite but Heidelberg Materials North America’s latest investment in Florida is further acceptance that one doesn’t just need clinker to make concrete.

Read Charles Zeynel’s interview on SCM Trends in 2023 in the June 2023 issue of Global Cement Magazine

The 15th Global Slag Conference, Exhibition & Awards take place on 6 - 7 June 2023 in Düsseldorf, Germany