When we decided to “drive” our new S-in motion concept into Detroit for a North American press event in early December, I knew it would be quite an undertaking. But, I thought about the years our global automotive division has spent developing these new product applications and knew we had to make it happen.

As you might guess, the “S” in S-in motion represents its many benefits, including:

1. Steel
2. Saving weight
3. Saving costs
4. Sustainability
5. Safety
6. Service
7. Strength
8. Solutions

From my perspective, now we are embarking on a 9th “S” – Sharing the Secret.

What started in Europe in November 2010 with the 1st launch that has now moved to North America. I had the rewarding opportunity to share S-in motion with our North American customers and media over the past month.

S-in motion represents the culmination of a 2-year Research and Development (R&D) project by our global automotive division. It introduces current and future steels designed to help car makers save weight and reduce costs, while providing innovative ideas to manufacture more sustainable, safe and strong vehicles.

Projects like S-in motion secure our future as a trusted, high-quality, leading supplier to the automotive industry because they enable ArcelorMittal to better understand how the steel we produce works with car makers’ designs and manufacturing processes. This partnership guides us when developing the next generation of advanced steels that will create more light-weight vehicles.

The S-in motion steels and new applications have the potential to deliver up to 19 % weight reduction compared with the 2010 C-segment baseline vehicle modules they replace. Most importantly for our customers, when used together these products save substantial weight and reduce CO2 emissions at no additional cost.

S-in motion is transforming tomorrow for both ArcelorMittal and our customers. I look forward to continuing to “Share the Secret.”

Contributed by: Blake Zuidema, Director, Automotive Product Applications, East Chicago Research and Development, ArcelorMittal

Photo 1: The S-in motion demonstrator is the centerpiece of the display which is traveling to customer, media and other roll-out events during 2011.

Photo 2: An automotive front door depicting new applications of the Advanced High-Strength Steels (AHSS) in the S-in motion product portfolio.

Our S-in motion project has just been unveiled during a 3-day European press trip: Today at Daimler in Sindelfingen close to Stuttgart in Germany, we were at the cradle of the Mercedes C, S and E class cars. Journalists from across Europe could visit the press shop and assembly line.

It was the final stage of a three-day press trip that started at our research centre in Montataire, continued in Mouzon (both in France), stopped over at our headquarters in Luxembourg to finish at the Daimler production site in Sindelfingen.

On Wednesday November 3, the S-in motion automotive lightweight concept was unveiled at a press conference at our Montataire R&D centre. Journalists saw, experienced and touched the steels, service, solutions, weight savings and safety that ArcelorMittal offers its worldwide automotive customers. Journalists were especially impressed by the crash simulations and hot stamping demos they witnessed.

One of the broad range of solutions for weight savings is Usibor® and ArcelorMittal’s patented hot stamping solution – a real global success already today, with a lot of potential in the future. On Thursday 4 November – for the first time – journalists were allowed to see a Usibor® coating line in Mouzon, France.

Today, when journalists heard Daimler spokesmen say that they are under huge pressure to make even lighter, more sustainable and safer cars and that they need the help of steel makers like ArcelorMittal, the puzzle was complete.

ArcelorMittal is clearly in forward motion when it comes to helping carmakers develop the cars of the future.

Over the coming months, the S-in motion program will be rolled out to carmakers around the world. For more information about this program and about how carmakers can reduce weight by up to 20% for the Body-in-White, please visit www.arcelormittal.com/automotive

For the news release about S-in motion, see http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=33&tb0=91

Author: Dieter Vandenhende, Manager Communications, Flat Carbon Europe & Automotive Worldwide

Making sure that customers are delivered the right material at the right time. This is the mission of our customer teams. But sometimes it can be much more than that… and this is where ArcelorMittal makes the difference.

Newly marketed vehicles facing strong demand, considerable fluctuations of the end market, orders with mistakes, quality issues with products and services at other steelmakers’… These are some of the situations that our customers frequently face. During the second half of 2009, ArcelorMittal was able to help PSA Peugeot Citroën to deal with many of them, sometimes by finding solutions to make up for our competitors’ failings.

“We could count on ArcelorMittal to support us when Sochaux (PSA Peugeot Citroën historical site in France) asked us to make the necessary efforts to guarantee the production of the 3008 and 5008 models that were facing an increasing demand,” explains Fadi Jabban, Flat Products Purchasing Manager Body in White at PSA Peugeot Citroën.

“Quite often we would receive urgent requests on a Friday around 4 pm,” said Nicolas Rouet, ArcelorMittal’s Global Account Manager for PSA Peugeot Citroën. “Friday evening emergencies have even become a joke between the PSA Peugeot Citroën purchasing service and our team. We were able to achieve a very high level of reactivity thanks to the strong commitment of all ArcelorMittal services: commercial, production, logistics, support for validating urgent orders in IT systems, Distribution Solutions…”

These efforts were rewarded on March 19, 2010, when ArcelorMittal received the “Logistics award” from PSA Peugeot Citroën (picture).

Author: Vincent Daenen, Automotive and Global Customers, Communications

For its building, K36 Ugibright, a special grade of KARA, ArcelorMittal’s new ferritic brand, was chosen for its performance and aesthetics. K36 is indeed very ductile, which allowed the specialists to reduce the thickness of the material, thus facilitating erection and enabling a reduction in the weight of the facade. The grade was also selected thanks to its surface finish that offers exceptional qualities in terms of lustre, reflectivity, uniformity and long service life resulting from its smooth finish.

The speed of execution of this project reflects ArcelorMittal’s commitment to move even closer to its customers by enhancing its service offer in Central Europe.

When you are a young child you dream of designing cars or being a pilot. My job as a resident engineer means that my childhood dreams have come true.
I’m not responsible for designing the cars myself but it is very exciting to be involved from the initial phase of the design of a car up to the final manufacturing, supporting the engineers who have to design the different parts of the car and choosing the best steel solution available. These high-tech solutions allow them to reduce the weight of the car and at the same time increase its performance. To better respond to this high demanding environment, my office is located in the development center of Ford. It is such a great feeling when the car finally comes into the market, knowing that its environmental impact has been reduced by using lightweight steel.

During the shooting of this episode, I had the privilege of driving all these amazing cars on the Nürburgring. This episode is a true example of ArcelorMittal’s commitment towards the automotive industry to support them in developing safe and environmental friendly cars. It explains that we’re not only supplying steel but that we want to think together with our clients and choose the very best steel solution for every application in the car. The episode shows not only how steel is transformed from sheet metal to complex parts and integrated in cars, but also how we support our clients through this complete process.

I hope that with this episode people will have a better idea about this interesting aspect of steel industry.

The ABC concept, which inspired this ad, gave birth to a lighter type of steel that reduces the fuel consumption and gas emissions while improving the vehicle strength. Because boldness is about protecting you… and everyone around you.

Vallourec Précision Soudage (VPS) produces about 100,000 tonnes of welded steel tubes for application in the automotive industry from two sites in France. Also based in France, Vallourec Composants Automobiles Vitry (VCAV) specialises in the design and manufacturing of tubular components for the automotive industry.

Combining them with ArcelorMittal’s existing pipes and tubes business will allow offering an even more complete range of products to its automotive customers.