Discover what colleagues from ArcelorMittal did during their solidarity holidays – watch the video.

As part of our commitment to helping our employees lead a healthy lifestyle, our annual health awareness programme is a chance for everyone to focus on health and wellbeing.

Launched in 2010 as Health Week, the Health Awareness Programme has become an important annual event for ArcelorMittal. While workplace health and safety is always our highest priority, we also believe in supporting staff in their efforts to live healthier lifestyles.

Every site and office across the company dedicates a week between September and November each year to health awareness activities, most of which are organised in line with the year’s chosen themes. In 2012, we focussed on physical activity, stress and nutrition.

More than 112,000 employees took part across the ArcelorMittal world. And this is not including the friends, families and communities that also joined in.

Health awareness across the ArcelorMittal world

Our Mexico operations had a phenomenal turnout for the ArcelorMittal Global Race they hosted on October 14, 2012. More than 2,400 employees and their families ran or walked through the city of Lázaro Cárdenas and on to our Las Truchas mine. Their Health Awareness Programme week was a big success, with 10,500 people participating in the planned activities.

Many sites also took the chance to get creative with the physical activity theme – ArcelorMittal South Africa’s ‘Site to Site Relay’ took place between Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark Works, where colleagues each ran 5km and passed on a scrolled copy of the ‘ArcelorMittal health awareness pledge’.

In London, our corporate office celebrated London 2012 and ArcelorMittal’s sponsorship of the Olympic Games by organising a mini-Olympics and Paralympics which included Paralympic-themed games. And ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor, Indiana, USA, officially opened its onsite employee fitness trails at the start or their Health Awareness Programme week, also announcing their environmental restoration plans for the surrounding forests and wetlands at a special dedication ceremony.

In Kazakhstan, hundreds of employees’ children got involved in inter-family sports tournaments while employees also took part in pre-shift physical exercises.

Bosnian colleagues at ArcelorMittal Zenica organised mountain hiking – a tradition in the country. A group of 234 workers and their families took part in one of the biggest hiking expeditions in Bosnia and Herzegovina to date.

Employees across the group were offered medical examinations focussed on nutrition, such as body mass index tests and assessments of eating habits and diets. Sites and facilities also organised lectures on how to eat adequately when working shifts.

In the Czech Republic, ArcelorMittal Ostrava promoted good nutrition by offering workers a 50% discount on the prices of vegetables and salads, while in Luxembourg employees learnt how to grow an organic mini-garden.

Activities offered around stress management differed from one country to another. Some sites chose to treat the subject by presenting plays depicting stressful situations and how to cope with them. For those employees who wished to speak to someone about how to manage stress, therapists were available by appointment. Other sites including ArcelorMittal Sistemas in Brazil offered de-stressing activities such as yoga or massage.

While the next major health and safety related event on ArcelorMittal’s calendar is our Health and Safety Day in April 2013, the plans for the Health Awareness Programme in 2013 are set to be even bigger and better than this year’s.

Steel pipes are used everywhere, everyday; in cars to carry brake fluid; under our roads to transport the gas we use and in buildings as a fundamental part of their infrastructure. With our seamless, spiral welded and longitudinal welded tubes, we serve the energy, mechanical and automotive markets with 24 different pipes and tubes production facilities in 12 countries and four continents - Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America. Our annual manufacturing capacity is three million tonnes and annual revenues average more than $2bn. Our tubular products division employs more than 9,000 people worldwide and is currently developing a Greenfield “state of the art” seamless pipe mill in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia that  when complete, will have a rolling capacity of 600,000 tonnes. Other major operation facilities include Ostrava (Czech Republic), with an annual production capacity of 320,000 tonnes and more than 1,250 employees: Shelby (US), with an annual capacity of 218,000 tonnes and 630 employees, and Unicom (Venezuela), whose 1,800 employees produce steel for the oil, gas, industrial and construction markets.  

We aim to produce the highest quality, highest performance products, in response to the increasingly complex operating conditions in the pipes and tubes industries. To do this, we combine integrated industrial sites, global research and development centres and an international sales network to give our customers the best possible service.  

Supplying the energy market 

As demand for the world’s oil and gas resources increases, ArcelorMittal’s pipes play an essential role in the extraction, processing and distribution of oil and gas. Our products meet stringent requirements for the most demanding applications around the world including: 

• oil and gas upstream activities
• hydrocarbon transportation
• boilers in hydrocarbon processing units
• power generation
• construction and civil engineering

Tubes for engineering

ArcelorMittal has a long tradition in supplying high quality products to the mechanical tube market (tubing that is used to make machines). 

We offer a comprehensive range of tubular products including seamless, drawn over mandrel (DOM - high-strength, electrically-welded tubing that has been further processed by cold-drawing through dies and over mandrels to improve its uniformity, mechanical properties and surface finish), as-welded, hollow sections and plain or galvanised pipe in large or small diameters in a vast array of steel grades. Our tube-making process guarantees the performance of our steel tubes for engineering and mechanical applications:

• hydraulic cylindersmineral mining equipment
• heavy construction equipment
• scaffolding and fencing
• farm machinery equipment
• storage systems
• furniture

The automotive industry

Our tubular products division supplies welded and cold drawn mechanical steel tubing and tubular shapes, fabricated parts and precision components for the automotive industry. As leaders in the field, we are committed to our philosophy of “manufacturing excellence.” 

Our production capabilities for the automotive industry include a wide range of longitudinal welded and seamless tubes as well as a complete range of components including: 

• suspension systems
• crash management components
• axle housing assembly systems
• welded precision tubes for manufacturing of seats, instrument panel beams, filler pipes,  engine cradles and reinforcement components 
• complex hydro-formed and other high-value added automotive applications

 

In partnership with Maisons Confort France (MCF), ArcelorMittal, together with 15 other companies, has brought a new, environmentally friendly housing solution to the market – the MCF 2020. As well as being a zero-emission house, the MCF 2020 generates enough energy to fuel both the house and an electric car. An innovative example of what steel can do in the construction market not only in the future, but also today.

In the video, one happy resident explains why steel was the perfect choice for her and her family: “we chose a house of steel because of the shapes – its rounded roofs, the shape of the doors and windows, and the shapes of the room. And this wasn’t even an expensive house, compared to traditional houses.”

Steel as a building material for housing is more environmentally friendly, more cost-efficient and safer than traditional building materials. The strength of steel also allows for innovative design and architecture. It is also resistant to earthquakes, and pre-fabrication of the steel structure off-site means construction sites are cleaner and safer.

Architect (picture): F Jauvion - www.fredericjauvion.fr

Our investment in Liberia’s mining and transport infrastructure is helping Liberia to rebuild its economy after years of civil war. Our stakeholder engagement programmes are allowing communities in Brazil to influence the development of their local plant, while our investment in steel production is helping to reverse the fortunes of the city of Temirtau, in Kazakhstan, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Liberia mines again

“Government cannot, by itself, achieve the vision for Liberia that is enshrined in our poverty reduction strategy. We need the participation of the private sector – one that will bring in sustainable investment and promote good corporate citizenship.”

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia

ArcelorMittal’s revitalisation of Liberia’s mining industry shows how responsible and transparent business practices and investment can bring long-term economic and social benefits to an emerging market.

The small nation of Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, was devastated by two civil wars between 1989 and 2003, during which time its economy and infrastructure were destroyed, creating a serious challenge to the post-war government to rebuild the country and create jobs for the unemployed – the vast majority of the working population.

The new Liberian government was keen to ensure that the country’s natural resources were used to provide direct and tangible benefits to Liberians. Attracting responsible foreign investment was deemed vital for urgent reconstruction and long-term development – and it was against this backdrop that ArcelorMittal entered the country.

Prior to the wars, Liberia was a major exporter of iron ore; ArcelorMittal’s investment focused on rebuilding the country’s mining and exporting industry.

In 2005, ArcelorMittal signed a Mineral Development Agreement with the Liberian government in which we committed to strengthening the country’s mining industry and transport system and investing heavily in its social infrastructure, such as schools and health clinics.

The project saw the reopening of abandoned mines in the Nimba mountains at Tokadeh, Gangra and Yuelliton. The 240km of abandoned railway running through Nimba, Bong and Grand Bassa to the port in the coastal town of Buchanan was refurbished, with bridges and service roads rehabilitated. Road networks were also improved, with 150km-200km of new roads built along the railway corridor. In Buchanan, the port was redeveloped to make it suitable for international shipping, which involved strengthening the iron ore quay and dredging the harbour.

Thousands of jobs created

Since 2006, ArcelorMittal Liberia has provided nearly 500 jobs directly, as well as created indirect employment for 2,100 Liberians through foreign and Liberian-owned contractors.

In 2011, the first shipments of iron ore left our mines near Yekepa – the first time ore had been mined in the country for 20 years. From 2012 onwards, the aim is to export 4m tonnes of ore a year.

Social and environmental impacts are far-reaching in a country where other opportunities are scarce. Using international codes of best practice has enabled us to deal with these issues effectively and transparently. The Corporate Responsibility Forum for Liberia, which ArcelorMittal set up in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) – the German government’s international development body – promotes effective corporate citizenship and good business practice among domestic Liberian companies and other multinationals planning to invest in the country. Our company is also a member of the multi-stakeholders steering group of the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

Joseph Mathews, then CEO of ArcelorMittal Liberia, says: “By leading the creation of the Corporate Responsibility Forum in Liberia, ArcelorMittal, together with other major companies here, has signalled that the private sector is now able to play its part in driving the development agenda. This forum is an opportunity to share best practices and in doing so, strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises and help create an entrepreneurial class.”