GGBFS & Granulated Blast Furnace Slag

Granulated slag for grinders and ground GGBS by activity index

GGBFS is two products under one HS code, and a buyer has to say which one before a price means anything. Granulated blast furnace slag is the unground glassy sand made by quenching molten iron-furnace slag in water; a cement grinder buys it as a raw material and grinds it with clinker or separately. Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS, or slag cement in North America) is the same glass milled to cement fineness and sold as a finished supplementary cementitious material to ready-mix, precast and blended-cement plants. The granulate is bought on how much of it is glass and on chemistry, because only the vitrified fraction reacts; EN 15167-1 requires the slag to be predominantly glassy, with CaO + MgO + SiO₂ making up at least two-thirds by mass. The ground product is bought on performance. EN 15167-1 sets a Blaine fineness of at least 275 m²/kg and an activity index, measured on a 50:50 blend with a test cement, of at least 45% at 7 days and 70% at 28 days. ASTM C989 grades GGBS by slag activity index instead: Grade 80 needs an average 28-day index of 75, Grade 100 needs 75 at 7 days and 95 at 28 days, and Grade 120 needs 95 at 7 days and 115 at 28 days. Japanese product sold to JIS A 6206 is quoted at a specific surface of 3,500 to under 5,000 cm²/g with MgO at 10% or less and SO₃ at 4.0% or less. A COA that gives chemistry without an activity index describes granulate, not GGBS.

The export base is concentrated. 2024 export declarations under HS 2618.00 total about 37.1 million MT across reporting countries, led by China at 13.89 million MT and Japan at 10.49 million MT, followed by Germany (1.89 million MT), Indonesia (1.33 million MT), India (1.18 million MT) and Türkiye (1.09 million MT), with South Africa, Italy, Korea and Taiwan also reporting exports. On the import side the United States declared 1.92 million MT in 2024 and 2.96 million MT in 2025, 1.66 million MT of it from Japan and 0.82 million MT from China, and the Philippines declared 0.56 million MT in 2024. Granulation is available at only a few active US blast furnaces, which is why much of the granulated slag used there is imported. Granulate moves as a bulk cargo, a Group C cargo under the IMSBC Code; ground GGBS is a powder and moves enclosed, in pneumatic cement carriers, bulk tankers or bulk bags, and the IMSBC Code now carries its own schedule for ground granulated blast furnace slag powder under Amendment 07-23, in force from 1 January 2025. Documents are a COA with glass content or activity index as the grade demands, a certificate of origin and, for European building-material use, the natural-radioactivity assessment that Directive 2013/59/Euratom applies to slags. In the EU the substance is registered under REACH as slags, ferrous metal, blast furnace (EC 266-002-0). Cement is a CBAM good from the start of the definitive period on 1 January 2026, but HS 2618 slag is not in the CBAM Annex I list; a ground slag cement declared under 2523 90 00 is. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company, and its chartering desk (LaycanDesk) prices the freight with the cargo. Send granulate or ground, the standard and grade, discharge port, discharge method and monthly tonnage, and the enquiry is worked on FOB or CFR against that.

In India, granulated slag is mostly a domestic trade. The steel plant sells it ex-works with GST charged on the invoice, and it moves either by rail rake booked through the Indian Railways freight system (FOIS) to the buyer's siding or in the buyer's own trucks from the plant. Eastern India is a large source, with integrated plants in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha granulating their blast-furnace slag. Part of that output crosses to Bangladesh: mirror trade data put Bangladesh's HS 2618 imports from India at about 1.22 million MT in 2025, against about 6.35 million MT from China. The Indian route runs through Kolkata, where rakes are unloaded and the slag is loaded onto river barges that sail the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol route to cement grinding units around Munshiganj and Narayanganj. The Protocol route mainly carries fly ash, in barges averaging about 1,000 MT, and granulated slag has also moved on it by barge from Kolkata.

See also: BOF/EAF steel slag and mill scale (not for cement replacement) · GBFS freight in bulk and by barge (LaycanDesk)

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices Vietnam to Bangladesh clinker freight on LaycanDesk.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.