EUROSLAG figures for 2023

Duisburg, 16 July 2024: In 2023, 35.8 million tons of ferrous slag were produced in the European Union and Great Britain. Of this, 19.9 million tons were blast furnace slag (BFS) and 15.9 million tons were steelwork slag (SWS). Thanks to an additional 0.6 million tons of stockpile reduction, a total of 20.5 million tons of BFS and 13.3 million tonnes of SWS were used primarily as building materials and fertilizers as well as in metallurgy. As a result, the by-products of the steel industry avoided the extraction of 44 million tons of natural rock across Europe last year and the emission of around 12 million tons of CO2 using granulated blast furnace slag instead of Portland cement clinker in cement. In the period from 2000 to 2023, a total of 1.17 billion tons of natural rock and 416 million tons of the climate-damaging gas were saved. 99 percent of blast furnace slag was used as a building material: 18.3 million tons in cement and 2 million tons as aggregate. 0.2 million tons went into other applications. In the case of steelwork slag, 8.8 million tons were used in road construction, 0.7 million tons in hydraulic engineering, 1.3 million tons in fertilizers, 1.7 million tons for metallurgical work, 0.6 million tons in cement and as a concrete additive and 0.2 million tons for other applications. The conservation of natural raw materials using ferrous slags between 2000 and 2023 is made up of the substitution of a total of 752 million tons of limestone, clay and sand for clinker production with granulated blast furnace slag in cement, 405 million tons of natural stone with slag-based aggregates in concrete and road construction and 12 million tons of natural lime fertilizer with converter and ladle slag in fertilizers. Thomas Reiche, Chairman of EUROSLAG and Managing Director of FEhS Building Materials Institute: "Despite the tensions on the European steel market, ferrous slags were once again able to make an important contribution to resource conservation, climate protection and the circular economy in 2023. We are continuing to look ahead and will be taking an in-depth look at current topics at this year's EUROSLAG conference in Bilbao under the title "Slags for the Future, the Future of the Slags". This includes the decarbonization of the steel industry and the corresponding 'new' slags as well as the resulting necessary adjustments to national and European regulations."     About EUROSLAG EUROSLAG brings together 26 organizations and companies from 17 countries, including the FEhS Institute. As a European network for the production, use and development of ferrous slags and slag-based products, EUROSLAG's activities focus on research and technology, European standardization, and internal and external communication. Every two years EUROSLAG organizes the Slag Conference together with national partners. About the FEhS Institute For more than seven decades, the FEhS Building Materials Institute has been Europe's leading address for research, testing and consulting on building materials and fertilizers made from ferrous and steel slags. As a modern service provider, the experts are a sought-after partner for member companies and customers from all over the world with seven laboratories, the KompetenzForum Bau and a network of industry associations, authorities, standardization bodies and institutions from science and research. ​ www.euroslag2024.eu www.euroslag.com www.fehs.de www.rohstoff-schlacke.de

EUROSLAG and FEhS Institute in favour of EU Parliament plans for the Circular Economy   Duisburg, 25 February 2021. The EU Parliament’s own-initiative report adopted this month calls for an upgrading of secondary raw materials. Among other things, it provides for stronger ecologically oriented public procurement with mandatory minimum criteria, for example in the construction industry. For the European network EUROSLAG and the FEhS Building Materials Institute, this is an important step towards a comprehensive approval of secondary building materials and their conditional prioritisation in public procurement tenders. For this to happen, however, European public procurement law must be amended, as a legal opinion by the law firm Kopp-Assenmacher & Nusser, commissioned by the two Duisburg institutions in 2020, found. Thomas Reiche, Chairman at EUROSLAG and Managing Director of the FEhS Institute, now sees the ball in the European Commission’s court: "The own-initiative report provides the best foundation for binding, forward-looking legislation to consistently promote the circular economy. This also includes fair competition and the conditional prioritisation of secondary raw materials, as also demanded by the rapporteur of the European Parliament Jan Huitema. Only concrete procurement directives with third-party protection character ensure the Europe-wide use of all high-quality secondary building materials, which have been making an important contribution to ecologically and economically sound economic activity for decades!" The European Parliament’s own-initiative report, under the lead of the Environment Committee, has adopted numerous demands based on the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan of March 2020. These include the promotion of resource efficiency, the Ecodesign Directive for products and green public procurement. Plans for the construction industry include specifications for the use of secondary raw materials and recycling. The Parliament’s proposals serve as a template for legislation by the European Commission.   About EURSOSLAG: EUROSLAG brings together 26 organisations and companies from 17 countries. As the European network for the production, use and development of iron and steel slag and slag-based products, EUROSLAG focuses on research and technology, standardisation at European level and internal and external communication. About the FEhS Institute: For seven decades, the FEhS Building Materials Institute has been one of Europe’s leading addresses for research, testing and consulting on iron and steel slag, building materials and fertilisers. As a modern service provider, the experts with seven laboratories, the Construction Competence Forum and a network of industrial associations, public authorities, standardisation committees, as well as institutions from science and research, are a sought-after partner for members and customers from all over the world.   www.euroslag.com www.fehs.de www.rohstoff-schlacke.de