The assembled guests of honour, including the Mayor of Dąbrowa Górnicza, other local political leaders and representatives of educational institutions, were genuinely impressed by the sight that met their eyes when the symbolic ribbon was cut and they were allowed into the building. The kindergarten’s entrance hall is supported by huge columns in the shape of coloured pencils and miniature tables and chairs offer a feast of colours. But the guests did not limit themselves to sightseeing. In a mini-amphitheatre situated in the garden adjacent to the kindergarten building, children sang and performed well-known hits adding a touch of music and entertainment to the event.

The facility is a response to the initiative of The Women’s Council whose members represent the interests of 1,300 women employed at ArcelorMittal Poland. The opening of the company’s first kindergarten is also a reflection of one of the 4 pillars of ArcelorMittal’s Corporate Responsibility strategy – investing in our people. This particular project aims to show the world and our employees that it is perfectly possible to reconcile a career with taking good care of their children. “Top class facilities like these, right next to the place of work, will allow parents to work at peace, knowing that their children are happy in excellent surroundings not far from their place of work”, agreed Sanjay Samaddar, CEO and BOD Chairman at ArcelorMittal Poland, during the opening ceremony.

The parents of the children who will soon become constant visitors to the facility are equally delighted by the building itself and the possibilities it offers for the development of their little ones.

By Barbara Schramel, Communications & CR, ArcelorMittal Poland

Bringing together over 30 journalists from all corners of the globe to Luxembourg for a three-day press tour is never easy, but when the local airport is closed unexpectedly and you end up with people stranded in Belgium, Germany and France, your task gets just a bit more challenging…

This was my first experience supporting a press trip such as this one and it was definitely a case of out of the oven and into the fire… or rather into the blast furnace!

We brought together print and television journalists to visit ArcelorMittal Luxembourg and learn about how the steel for the ArcelorMittal Orbit is being produced. This consisted of a tour of our operations in Esch-Belval, where we were able to see scrap steel being collected and poured into a giant electric arc furnace where it was melted into liquid steel. As the sweat dripped from our brows, we were amazed to watch ArcelorMittal employees working with the steel as it reached temperatures of 1,500 degrees Celsius!

For almost all of the journalists, it was the first time visiting a steel plant and so quite an eye-opener! I think the sheer size of the equipment at the plant was almost as large as my task of making sure that everyone in the group stuck together.

We wrapped up the first two days and the Luxembourg part of the press trip with a tour of the ArcelorMittal University campus in Luxembourg-city. There was also a presentation by GMB Member Michel Wurth, who explained how the ArcelorMittal Orbit represents an opportunity for the Company to showcase the versatility of steel on an international stage.

That marked the end of our time in Luxembourg and we were soon heading to the airport to fly to London to see the ArcelorMittal Orbit itself. As I am writing this, we are all on the same flight and so I am hoping that the journey to our next destination is smoother than our previous one. But I guess only time will tell…

Tobin Postma, Media Relations Specialist, ArcelorMittal London

Taking 55 journalists on a 3-day press trip from Luxembourg to Bolton to London is no easy task – it is not just a case of getting everyone from A to B. We had to take them from A to B to C, split the group, take some to D while others go on to E and so on.

It was a jam-packed itinerary in which we hoped to expose the journalists to as many different stages of the construction process as possible. It was the largest press trip undertaken to date and included 6 camera crews, which brought up challenges in itself. It was an emotional rollercoaster- several times a day my heart would start racing as some new logistical hurdle presented itself. Once it was resolved, I would breathe normally again and start to enjoy myself. Putting faces to the journalists I’d been emailing for weeks, discussing their views and excitement on the ArcelorMittal Orbit and our Olympic Sponsorship gave me a sense of pride that I am part of something that will become a legacy for London in years to come.

Watching the beginning stages in the scrap yard in Luxembourg, the fabrication and welding of the joints in Bolton and finally seeing a piece of the ArcelorMittal Orbit craned into place, at the Olympic Park, as everyone stood awestruck below was quite something.

Coverage since the trip has been plentiful and positive. So from a Communications’ point of view the trip is a success but for me this trip symbolises a personal success too. I didn’t lose anyone, everyone got to where they needed to be, when they needed to be there (more or less) and the thank you emails I’ve received suggest everyone enjoyed themselves and found the experience informative and useful.

“Hello,  we are talking to you, Warsaw. Listen to us!”  This is what the city of Warsaw could hear shortly after the inauguration of its ‘Ear’, which is located in front of the ArcelorMittal Warszawa plant. What exactly are we talking about and how can cities have ears? Read on to find out!

‘The Ear of the City’ is an installation created by Marek Dubiel – a young Polish artist and student of Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. What is special about this artwork is that it is entirely made of steel and was awarded the second prize in the 2010 Józef Szajna international festival “Zdarzenia”.

The creative spark for this piece came from Marek Dubiel’s musings over whether the inhabitants of a city become an element of a conscious being with which one can communicate. “I imagine the city as an enormous organism, which is talking to us through its noise and hum,” Marek explains. “ I was wondering: how can we answer the city? This is how the idea of the ‘Ear’ was born.”

Marek’s installation now allows the citizens of Warsaw to shout or whisper their dreams, frustrations or delusions to the city. When talking into  the installation, people play with their own voice which is then deformed by the metal plate. The voice blends into the urban sounds and travels across the maze of streets.

The Ear of the City was realised thanks to the support of ArcelorMittal Warszawa. “The steel plant has always supported culture. I like this idea because it combines art with steel products” says Henryk Hulin, CEO ArcelorMittal Warszawa.

Zbigniew Dubiel, Mayor of Warsaw’s Bielany district , also applauded this original idea and thanked ArcelorMittal for its ongoing commitment: “Those who are responsible for this city should look for every occasion to listen to its citizens. This artistic installation symbolically provides this possibility. We are grateful to ArcelorMittal Warszawa for its help and engagement in the life of the community.”

Our colleagues in Poland have found a way to make each month of 2011 just that bit more relevant and interesting. How? By shining the spotlight on ArcelorMittal Poland’s most valuable assets: their employees and their products.

HR calendar – supporting a good cause

2 different calendars have been created for 2011: the first was an initiative of the local HR department and presents its female members after work. The ‘models’ are all enthusiasts of different types of sports, and are photographed in action: from rollerblading to tennis and Nordic walking.

These amazing ladies not only organised all the logistics connected to the production of the calendar, but used this initiative to support a charity! The calendars can only be acquired by making a donation to the ‘Steel Health Foundation’ in Poland. The money raised will be used to organise winter camps for children who were victims of the severe floods that occurred in Poland in 2010.

You can donate to Bank Pekao, account number: 19 12 40 4588 1111 0010 3375 9051. Please add the reference: DAROWIZNA.

Facts, figures and… people!

The second calendar presents ArcelorMittal Poland in figures. Learn how, with the total sections produced so far at the Dabrowa Górnicza facilities, we could build 6 paths to the moon, or how all the sheet metal produced in Świętochłowice would cover 4,000 football pitches, and many more amazing facts! Also, did you know that ArcelorMittal Poland has already planted 350,000 trees in its effort to protect the environment?

The initial question was: Can company figures sound interesting? Yes, they can!, So long as there are people behind it. The figures are presented, therefore, by colleagues from ArcelorMittal Poland, who feature on each page of the calendar, including many plant and office employees and even Sanjay Samaddar, CEO ArcelorMittal Poland. The organisation of the calendar was no easy task; 7 units in 6 cities were covered with roughly 90 employees participating in the project. But the final result is worth all the effort , wouldn’t you agree?

Click here to check out the calendar!

Our Group has launched a new Health and Safety initiative: ArcelorMittal Health Week, aiming to promote healthy habits among employees. A more than proper initiative for an amateur sportsman like me; as I’m writing these lines, I’ve just arrived at my office after my fitness session in the gym…

The Communications team in Spain has been helping our Medical Services for the last few weeks to organize the first Health Week in many sites of our country. Health Fairs, chats and other activities are on the agenda for next week, but one activity gives me a special thrill: the ’1st ArcelorMittal Asturias Race for Health’, to take place on November 20, circling one of the reservoirs owned by the company in a privileged landscape, and addressed to our employees.

I’ve been firmly supporting this idea because I know by experience that a healthy life is the best we can do for ourselves. When I go in for any kind of sport, I feel much better, have a break to think calmly and load my batteries for the next day. The day I don’t, I really miss it and feel tired.  Definitely, wellness is something I want for my life.

Many organizational details are yet to be arranged regarding this race. But I’m clear about one thing: on Saturday 20, I will be on the start line with my trainers on!

Author: Alberto Carrero de Roa, Head of Internal Communications, Spain

ArcelorMittal Ostrava certainly managed to make a lasting impression at the International Engineering Faire held in Brno last September. How? By offering visitors a fast and unique experience, thus becoming the most frequented stand of the fair. Read on to learn more…

Thanks to a unique F1 simulator, ArcelorMittal attracted nearly 800 visitors to its stand. Though it does not exactly look like a car, the simulator is the most realistic ever developed by a team of car racers and engineers.

“The simulator was in great demand,” explains Augustine Kochuparampil, CEO of ArcelorMittal Ostrava. “It was an opportunity for us to inform the visitors about our Ostrava speciality product – crash barriers – in a unique way. We offered visitors a chance to experience things which they would hardly face in their everyday life. First, to try what it is like to drive a formula 1. But also what it is like to crash into road barriers.”

The simulator was so frequented that during 5 days of the fair, the visitors covered a total distance of 4,800 km, that is, the distance between Prague and Kabul. “In order to accommodate as many visitors as possible, we finished the races half an hour after normal closing time each day,” adds Adam Kondělka, exhibit manager from ArcelorMittal Ostrava.

The branded simulator reminded all visitors that ArcelorMittal Ostrava is the country’s biggest producer of crash barriers. ArcelorMittal Ostrava has been producing this product for more than 41 years and exports it to many European countries including Slovakia, Germany, Poland, France or Spain.

This year, the facility delivered 2,750 tonnes of road barriers (84 km) for the newly opened by pass in Prague. As of today, 90 percent of all road barriers in the Czech Republic come from this site.

ArcelorMittal Ostrava was not the only ArcelorMittal unit which was presented at the Interantional Engineering Fair. The facility shared the exhibit with its subsidiaries as well.

Collaboration: Ivo Štěrba, Communications, ArcelorMittal Ostrava,
Photo: Radim Raszka, Communications, ArcelorMittal Ostrava, Sabina Silhanova

Ashok quickly organised a team to join him for the very next day. 6 members of the ArcelorMittal London office volunteered to take on this (to some) mighty task. Group Management Board (GMB) member Davinder Chugh led the team formed by Management Committee member Bhikam Agarwal, VP Ashok Aranha along with Michael Wilhelmer, Chun-Wah Wong and Simone Bose. After many amusing suggestions, this team named themselves ‘The Rookies’, since none of them had ever walked 20 miles during the day, let alone at night! GMB member Sudhir Maheshwari also joined and formed a separate team with his wife, daughter and son.

Registration and regular exercising to get in shape were just the first (easy) steps as all participants of the Night Hike are supposed to fund-raise the cost of their participation fee, and are strongly encouraged by hike organisers to raise more. The importance of the work the charity carries out inspired them all; 1 in 3 people in the UK are diagnosed with cancer. The Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres Trust was founded by Maggie Keswick Jencks in 1995 to provide support for those affected by cancer, their families, carers and friends to empower people to live with, through and beyond cancer.

ArcelorMittal London employees were invited to donate to the cause. Some ArcelorMittal participants, including Sudhir Maheshwari, went the extra mile by setting up a special webpage for colleagues, friends and family to be able to pledge money easily and directly.

All participants agreed that the best part of the hike was that it took place on London’s annual Open Weekend when many museums, galleries and Royal Institutes charge no entrance fee and stay open all night. 6 of these buildings formed the refreshment stops and race markers.

Michael looks back and jokes, “my feet were killing me for the last 5 miles and that was exactly when Mr Aranha became all chirpy and jokey. In those early hours of the morning you could really see who was ‘bold’ enough for this task.”

But as Mr Chugh put it, “I think you need to have a great team to make such a walk and we did. I may have spent the weekend with sore feet, but it was very fulfilling in the end. Maggie’s Centres make a much needed difference, and through joining the 3,000 Londoners who walked, so have we.”

The teams thank their colleagues, friends and families for the donations received. To date, both teams raised £9,941!

Filip Kuźniak, from ArcelorMittal Poland, has just accomplished a bold goal – he participated in this year’s ‘TransRockies’ mountain bike race in the Rocky Mountains of Canada and ultimately finished at a very respectable 3rd place!  This year, 450 riders from all over the world rolled up to the start line of an ambitious 400km route to challenge themselves in the “toughest mountain bike race on earth”. In the paragraphs below, he recalls his impressions of this one-of-a-kind experience…

“The Transrockies are a very difficult race. The Rocky Mountains are wild, uninhabited and very clean, so very beautiful. We actually met a grizzly bear with 2 of her young ones and an elk! We all know how an encounter like that, with a huge and unpredictable animal, can end. We needed to be very cautious.

The organisers of this killer race reminded all of us of how to behave in difficult circumstances and of the safety rules to be followed. Safety first! That is why we were organised in teams of 2, so one could always count on the help or support of his friend in case of unpredictable danger. Such support is really necessary, especially when you may simply start to lose hope.

Having to face low temperature, strong wind and heavy rain (or snow) requires a lot of strong will and a lot of encouraging words from your teammate. Szymon and myself could count on each other in every circumstance. We managed to make our way up in the race in spite of the difficult weather conditions. We were able to catch up to 4th position and then on to the 3rd.

Just before the last leg of the race, we worked out a 13 minute advantage over our biggest competitors – the team from Colorado (USA). Out of all of the teams in the top 10, only Szymon and myself were amateurs. But wearing the company colours and the ArcelorMittal logo proudly on our t-shirts, we managed to finish at the 3rd position!”

A full report on the race plus photos can be seen on www.transrockies.com/trc

Collaboration: Monika Olech, Communications, ArcelorMittal Poland

‘How can we engage with the communities around us? Which are the projects which will help us improve their lives in the most sustainable way? How can we show our communities that ArcelorMittal strives to be more than a business, but a corporate citizen?’ These were some of the questions which 11 correspondents from the ArcelorMittal Foundation tried to answer during a 2-day meeting held in Poland from August 24th to 25th.

The 11 correspondents of the ArcelorMittal Foundation gathered from Asia, CIS and Eastern Europe to share best practices based on projects led by the Foundation over the past year in the areas of Education, Health and Social promotion…

But rather than to merely celebrate past accomplishments, the aim of the meeting was to understand and address the existing and upcoming challenges and try to find viable solutions. Helping them in their ambitious task were Felicidad Cristobal, Managing Director of the ArcelorMittal Foundation, Roland Verstappen, VP International Affairs and Corporate Responsibility at ArcelorMittal and Rajendran Mandamparambil, Project Manager for the region.

The last day also saw the participation of Sanjay Samaddar, CEO of ArcelorMittal Poland, who gave a powerful presentation and explained that while in a context of crisis the Company had put a special focus on its 3Cs which were Cash, Costs and Costumers, the 3Cs of the ArcelorMittal Foundation should be Communication, Conviction and Care: raising awareness – both internally and externally – about the importance of engaging with communities, upholding the conviction that everything is possible under the motto ‘if you believe it, you can see it’, and genuinely caring about the wellbeing of local communities.

The meeting was concluded with the visit of a project supported by ArcelorMittal Poland in the city of Dąbrowa Górnicza: a creative education centre where children and youngsters develop artistic skills ranging from pottery to painting, from singing to playing various instruments, from digital photography to computer animation.

Collaboration: Felicidad Cristobal, Rajendran Mandamparambil and Łukasz Cioch, ArcelorMittal Foundation

Picture (from left to right): Ctirad Lolek, Lenka Antosova, Geanina Pavel, Dijana bozic, Karolina Muza, Magdalena Kusmierz, Maiya Lastovskaya, Orman Kamzabayev, Predrag Sorga, Felicidad Cristobal, Vesna Pavlovskaya, Roland Verstappen, Sally Tao, Rajendran Mandamparambil, Adriana Vint, Sudhir Sinha, Lukasz Cioch