Projects at U. S. Steel Kosice

The agreement by which U. S. Steel took over the Kosice steel-making operations in the year 2000 contained a declaration of intent to undertake an exensive program of employee training. During the course of the next two years several projects were implemented at U. S. Steel Kosice with the aim of fulfilling that undertaking. These were the Costs Saving Program, Continuous Improvement, JOBS and Workplace Optimization schemes.
Last year an occupational safety program started operating, named HELP - the Hazards and Losses Elimination Program - and at the beginning of this year the first groups of our employees began trining in the environmental program CITE - Continuous Improvement for the Environment. As these processes and programs to some extent feature similar requirements in terms of achieving their aims, it is necessary to arrange their interlinking and cooperation for greater efficiency, and in certain instances this already exists.

Further investment in ecology

From the original acquisition of the steel mill in November 2000 onwards, U. S. Steel Kosice undertook to improve the quality of the atmosphere in this area. Improving our working environment was and still is one of the Company's stated aims or business drivers. At the beginning of February representatives of U. S. Steel Kosice and VOEST-ALPINE Industrieanlagenbau GmbH (VAI) of Linz, Austria, signed a contract involving a large capital investment project for new equipment for the primary steel-making part of our operations.
VAI is contracted to supply the project engineering, manufacture and install the equipment for both primary and secondary dust-removal at Steel Plant No.1. This equipment will incorporate the most up-to-date technology for two new converters, and will operate as an integral part of the waste gas recovery and cooling system.

Successful events with steelworks support

The flood of letters addressed to U. S. Steel Kosice with words of thanks for the Company's assistance and support in organizing various charitative, cultural and educational events is not abating. One of them arrived recently from Zilina, sent by Svetozar Martinicky, expressing gratitude for the help in organizing the benefit concert tour named "Bethlehem in Slovakia", with performances in Presov, Rajecka Lesna, Zilina and Bratislava.
Proceeds from the concerts were devoted to the further enhancement of churches and the famous Slovak "Bethlehem" scene in Rajecka Lesna. The head of the Department of Technology and Materials of the Faculty of Engineering at the Technical University in Kosice, Prof. Emil Spisak, has written on behalf of his students saying thank-you for the well-organized excursion around the factory which took place as part of their program of study at the Department of Technology and Materials.
Thanks for financial assistance have also been received from the boys and girls at the Children's Home in Tisovec, and the young members of the Saca Volleyball Club have showed their appreciation for U. S. Steel Kosice's sponsorship of their Christmas tournament.

First visit to U. S. Steel Kosice

Last week saw the first visit to U. S. Steel Kosice by quality management colleagues from U. S. Steel Serbia in Smederevo. The group was made up of GM Quality John Cline, Quality Manager Milanka Milosevic and QMS staff member Tania Zivkovic. Their five-day stay in Kosice was packed with work. Together with the team of U. S. Steel Kosice GM Quality Management David Bormet, they involved themselves mainly in the preparation of a common products catalog and a comprehensive set of data for their information systems. The new Order Fulfilment System (OFS) will speed up the acceptance of repeated customer orders.