Ostrava, 2 October 2019 – The Liberty Steel mill will deliver 150,000 tonnes of blast furnace slag, so called slag aggregate, a by-product of the hot metal production, for the construction of a bypass road in Frýdek-Místek. Using blast furnace slag saves consumption of natural stone. It is a high-quality material suitable for the base layer of roads. First cars should appear on the bypass in February 2020.

 ”The blast furnace slag has got an infamous reputation recently due to the bumpy motorway in the Ostrava region and the slag was not allowed to be used for road construction for some period. Our specialists together with experts on slag from Ostrava Technical University managed to prove that wrong since the use of other unsuitable materials was the problem. Thanks to that, the blast furnace slag managed to take up top position among materials for road construction again,” says Svatava Třaskošová, Waste Manager at Liberty Ostrava.

 Most steel production waste and by-products are still reused later[1]. Blast furnace slag is created during iron ore smelting in the blast furnace and hot slag cooling in the dumps. It is used for cement and glass production as well as for road construction when it even has a better quality for this purpose than natural stone as it is easier to ram. The use of slag instead of natural stone also saves non-renewable resources the reserves of which are decreasing in the natural environment. For these reasons the blast furnace slag is used for road construction all over Europe.

Liberty Ostrava a.s. is an integrated steel business with a production capacity of 3.6 million tonnes of steel. At present it annually produces c. 2.2 million tonnes of steel, which is mainly used in construction, machinery and oil & gas industries. The company is a domestic leader in the manufacture of road barriers and tubes. In addition to the Czech market, it supplies its products to more than 40 countries around the world. Together with its subsidiaries, the company has 6,300 employees. The 2018 average monthly income was CZK 39,180. As a result of the above-standard greening, the company manufactures its products with a minimum possible environmental footprint. It is part of Liberty Steel, a global steel and mining business. Liberty Steel is part of the GFG Alliance, a global group of energy, mining, metals, engineering, logistics, and financial services businesses, headquartered in London, with a presence in around 30 countries worldwide. The Alliance has a global workforce of around 30,000 people and a turnover exceeding US$ 20 billion.

 [1] Steel mill slag is created as a by-product of the production of steel. As it contains almost 40 % of iron, the steel plant recycles it. The iron content is separated and re-used in the production as a replacement of the iron ore and flux. The remaining material can be then used as bottom layer for pavements, drainage of engineering networks, and for winter road maintenance.

News release .pdf

LIBERTY Ostrava a.s.
Barbora Černá Dvořáková
Head of Communicaions
T +420 595 683 390
M +420 606 774 346
barbora.cerna-dvorakova@libertysteelgroup.com