In 2024, approximately 19.6Mt of blast furnace slag (BFS) and 16.5Mt of steel slag (SMS) were produced in the European Union. Additional extraction of temporarily stored blast furnace slag made a total of around 38Mt of ferrous slag available. Of this, 35Mt, or 92%, was used as building materials and fertilizers, as well as in other applications. This prevented the extraction of 40Mt of natural rock and the emission of 11.4Mt of CO2 across Europe. Between 2000 and 2024, this will amount to a total of 1.21 billion tons of natural rock and 319Mt of CO2.
In 2024, 21.5Mt million tons of BFS were used in their entirety: 20Mt granulated blast furnace slag was used in cement and 1.5Mt as aggregate in concrete and road construction. Of the 16.5Mt of SWS, 9Mt were used in road construction, 2Mt in building construction, 800kt in fertilizers, 1.6Mt for metallurgical work, and 100kt for other applications. That is a total of 13.5Mt million tons, or 82%.
Thomas Reiche, chairman of EUROSLAG and managing director of FEhS Building Materials Institute, commented: "The current figures show that even in a difficult global political and economic environment, ferrous slag makes an important contribution to resource conservation, climate protection, and the circular economy. EUROSLAG will continue to work at all levels to intensify practice-oriented research and adapt national and European regulations. This will ensure that the by-products of the steel industry can continue to be used extensively as valuable secondary raw materials in various industries in the future."