Steel Slag & Mill Scale

BOF and EAF steel slag and mill scale in Handymax and Supramax lots

Two steelworks by-products move in bulk under HS 2619.00, and each is bought on a different number. Steel slag (HS 2619.00, from BOF and EAF converters) is dense and does not vitrify, so it goes to road aggregate, railway ballast and cement raw feed rather than cement replacement; its risk is free lime (≤ 3–5% after weathering), which hydrates and expands, and free MgO, so it is sold aged and tested for volume stability. Mill scale (also HS 2619.00) is the dark flaky iron oxide (Fe₃O₄, FeO, Fe₂O₃) knocked off hot-rolled steel, 68–72% Fe with oil ≤ 0.5–1% and SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and P held low, and it is bought by sinter plants and cement kilns as an iron unit. Granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS, HS 2618.00), the glassy iron-furnace slag that cement grinders buy on glass content, is a different product and has its own page under cement and clinker. Some importing countries class mill scale and slag as solid waste and restrict or bar their import, so the receiver's import status is confirmed before a stem is worked. Under the IMSBC Code mill scale ships as a Group A cargo when it is fine and wet, that is when a significant share is below 7 mm and moisture is near the transportable moisture limit, so a flow-moisture and TML certificate within six months and a moisture test within seven days of loading are required before a ship will take it; coarse, dry material can be declared Group C.

Steel slag moves out of Chinese ports into the Bay of Bengal and for mill scale moving from Bangladeshi and Indian rolling mills to Vietnamese and Chinese sinter plants; steel-slag and mill-scale stems on those lanes are on our chartering desk now. China's own 2025 export declarations for HS 2619 are not available, so steel-slag and mill-scale stems are priced against firm quotes rather than published averages. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company with a chartering desk (LaycanDesk), so we quote cargo and vessel together, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms, against SGS, Intertek or Bureau Veritas certificates for chemistry, moisture, free lime and volume stability (steel slag) and Fe, oil and TML (mill scale). Send your Fe or grading requirement, moisture ceiling, discharge port and whether you have a hopper or need geared tonnage, and we work the source and the ship to it.

See also: GBFS and GGBS for cement grinders

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices bulk limestone, gypsum and aggregates 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.