Visitors at USSK

On February 16 and 17, U. S. Steel Kosice welcomed several foreign visitors, invited here by Company President David J. Rintoul. The first were from Volkswagen Slovakia -Executive Board Chairman Albrecht Reimold, who has been in this post since January 16 this year, and Executive Board member for Human Resources Wilfreid von Rath. After meeting top USSK representatives, the guests from the third largest automotive manufacturer in the world looked round HDG Line No.3, where they were familiarized with the process of producing our galvanized sheets.
Next day it was the turn of Thomas Jan Hejcman to visit U. S. Steel Kosice, a new face in Slovakia in the position of Executive Board Chairman and CEO of VSE, a.s. (East Slovakian Electricity Supply Company) since January 1, 2012. After a meeting with David Rintoul he was taken round the steelworks on a plant tour. He saw production in progress at the Steel Plants, the Hot and Cold Rolling Mills, and at HDG Line No.3.

Awards from GM R&D USSE

In the past week we have come to know the names of 13 originators of the best projects in the research & development field in 2011. On Thursdy, February 23, the official presentation of the awards took place, attended by USSK Vice President Technology Vladimir Jacko and GM Production Support USSE Thomas J. O'Toole. One of the fundamental criteria in the assessment of the research projects was costs saving, and the successful projects have already produced savings in practice of more than 26 million euros.

Costs-saving leaders in 2011 are teams from Blast Furnaces, Steel Plants and Procurement

In 2011 there were 16 teams actively involved in costs saving at USSK. The leaders in terms of the amounts of savings recorded were the teams from the Blast Furnaces, Steel Plants and Procurement divisions. The greatest savings, with a 62 per cent share in the total, were produced by projects focusing on economies in materials, followed by energy-saving projects with a 14 per cent share, and expenditure projects with a 13 per cent share.

Illuminated info-boards show number of injury-free days

In the last few days, illuminated information boards have appeared at the plants of the Blast Furnaces Division, keeping employees and visitors up to date with details of the number of injury-free days in the Division and the steelworks as a whole. Everyone coming to the Blast Furnaces now has an immediate idea of how their workplace and the Company are doing in terms of occupational safety. The Blast Furnaces staff are sure that as the numbers of injury-free days increase on the boards, so the employees' motivation will grow to work as safely as possible and minimize the injury rate.

Gold for our firefighter

Adrian Ficik from USSK's Works Firefighting Unit, who took part in the International Firefighters' Indoor Rowing Competition on Concept 2 training machines, held on February 11 in Szolnok, Hungary, won first place in the category of individuals over 35 years of age.