On a crisp, autumn day in October, I made the hour-long drive from my office at ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor to Merrillville, Indiana, for the first-ever Manufacturing Our Future Summit. The event marked the culmination of many months of discussion and planning by a large group of ArcelorMittal employees, school representatives, business workers and community leaders.

The focus of the evening’s event, hosted by the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), was the importance of having a manufacturing policy in the U.S. as well as a skilled, educated talent pool to fill manufacturing jobs. Working in the steel industry has become more high-tech and with a growing number of our U.S. workforce due to retire in the near future, we need young people to seek careers in the steel industry.

I watched as more than 500 attendees from labour, business, government and education gathered to hear from Ron Bloom, Senior Counselor to President Obama on Manufacturing Policy. He spoke about workforce education, training and policies needed to keep the U.S. competitive globally and encouraged young people to enter good-paying careers in manufacturing. One memorable quote from Bloom included:

“Jobs across manufacturing are more focused on advanced technologies and complex operations. Workers who can fill those roles, working with their heads and their hands, are in alarmingly short supply. Finding people to fill these jobs is essential to the revival of manufacturing. People who work in manufacturing can tell you, there are real rewards that come from creating something with your hands. Manufacturing can be a great place to work and we need to be sure that Americans know the kinds of rewarding careers they can have working for a company that makes things.”

Hearing those words reminded me, and others, why we come to work each day and that a bright future can be built in steel. Being part of a company that makes a viable product is rewarding, and this event marked the start of much work we have to do to ensure students are interested in careers in manufacturing.

An important step in preparing for a job in our industry is to join the apprenticeship-style program we started two years ago in the U.S. For more information, please visit: www.steelworkerforthefuture.com.

To view a video and find out more about the Manufacturing Our Future summit, please visit AAM’s website at

www.americanmanufacturing.org

Author: Mark Langbehn, Manager, Hourly Employee Training, ArcelorMittal USA

Inset image: Ron Bloom, Senior Counselor to President Obama on Manufacturing Policy, speaks to summit attendees about the importance of policy that supports U.S. manufacturing.

‘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

The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting started today in Davos. How have the first hours of the ArcelorMittal delegation been? Read a fresh report from the spot…

Davos is a small ski town in Switzerland that normally holds 12,000 friendly inhabitants. Their peace is shattered one week of the year for the meeting of more than 1,200 business leaders, 50 heads of state and Government, NGOs, trade unions, cultural, media and academics.

The whole town turns into something that resembles a summer camp – just covered in snow! It is almost magical, full of business suits but strangely exciting. Especially considering the topics on the agenda – This year, delegates will be “Shaping the Post-Crisis World”!

After a 2.5 hr drive from Zurich to Davos late last night, our Group Management Board members are getting started early: Christophe Cornier, had a breakfast session with Boston Consulting Group to discuss how rapidly developing economies are dealing with the global slowdown. “This is an impressive set up…! Finding my way, once I got my bearings I was ok. I have good shoes!,” he said

Davinder Chugh, was also up and raring to go. On his schedule this morning were sessions about climate change and a 2009 Africa update.

Another crucial member of the delegation here is Roland Verstappen, VP International Affairs. Roland and his team are writing political briefing packs day and night for the 20 public figure meetings, of course with the crucial assistance from our colleagues across globe! That’s all from Davos today…

Author: Selina Vaccarino, Global Events Manager
Picture: Davos (Copyright World Economic Forum -www.weforum.org-swiss-image.ch)

Photo by Andy Mettler

A team of ArcelorMittal top executives welcomed Mr Qiang and his delegation. During a visit of the city of Luxembourg and a lunch at the Headquarters, they all had the opportunity to discuss ArcelorMittal’s projects in the province, one of which is the participation of ArcelorMittal in Hunan Valin, one of the largest steelmakers in China, with an annual production capacity of 8.5 million tonnes.

The Chinese delegation also visited the ArcelorMittal R&D Center in Maizières les Metz (France). Roland Verstappen, VP International Relations, Patrick Seyler, Country Manager for Luxembourg, and Dirk Matthys, CEO ArcelorMittal China, among other ArcelorMittal executives, accompanied the governor.

These visits were part of the European trip of the governor of Hunan. His previous stop before Luxembourg was London, where he met Mr Mittal.

Much press attention was given to the statements of Mr Mittal, President and CEO, and GMB members Gonzalo Urquijo and Michel Wurth. One of their main messages was the internal growth plan target to increase shipments by more than 20% from 2006 to 201. The three-dimensional growth strategy which refers to mining, distribution and product mix was also presented.

An update was also given about the most recent milestones of the successful integration: of the $1.6 billion synergies projected in September 2006, $973 had already been realised at the end of the second quarter of 2007. Approximately $1.3 billion are expected to be captured by the end of the third quarter 2007.

The motto of the IISI Conference was “meeting the challenge”. In line with this, the GMB Members also announced ArcelorMittal’s intention to assume responsibility as a forerunner in the field of climate change.

Want to know more?

IISI short range outlook – Read the forecast

The Prime Minister for Mongolia conducted a very busy one day tour in Luxembourg including a visit to ArcelorMittal. He was accompanied by his Minister for the Environment, Ichinkhorloo Erdenebaatar.

The first stop for the Head of the Mongolian government was to speak with Luxembourg’s Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker. The talks were primarily related to politico-economic bilateral relations and the relations between the European Union and Mongolia referring to issues such as development co-operation.

It was within this working framework that the Mongolian Prime Minister and his delegation took the opportunity to meet with Michel Wurth, Member of the ArcelorMittal Group Management Board, Responsible for Flat Products Europe, Products Development and R&D, Global Customers.

President Oscar Arias Sánchez highlighted the importance of the presence of a company such as ArcelorMittal in his country. He also expressed his satisfaction with the numbers shown by the unit, which in the last year significantly increased its steel exportation, and added that the company was committed to Costa Rican development.

The Laminadora e Trefilería Costarricense is a joint-venture between ArcelorMittal and the Pujol Group, organized in three industrial units, which in 2006 produced 185 thousand tons of rolled steel, and 31 thousand tons of drawn products.

Photo – Left to right: Paulo Geraldo de Sousa, Wellerson Ribeiro, Costa Rica President Oscar Arias Sánches and Minister Marco Vinício Ruiz

During his welcoming words to the Spanish King, Mr Kinsch recalled that Arcelor Mittal employs some 13,000 people in Spain, adding that the Spanish staff had won recognition for their talent and dedication at all levels from plant operation to management. Afterwards the royal guests were shown around the new medium section mill, following with attention the explanations and observing the rolling process of several beams. They also had the opportunity to talk to employees of the site at the control cabin.

Photo: From left to right, King Juan Carlos, Joseph Kinsch and Lakshmi Mittal, during the visit to the mill

Want to know more?

The King looks for investors
Le Quotidien, 19 April 2007 (in French)

Last day of the state visit of the King and Queen of Spain to Luxembourg – Bonds made of steel
La Voix du Luxembourg, 19 April 2007 (in French)

This is the 5th time the summit has been held, and this year is on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which initially established the European Community. Arcelor Mittal was one of the main partners and was represented by GMB member Michel Wurth.

“Although we enjoy a global position, the company has deep roots in Europe which we are very proud of and committed to maintaining.”

During his speech ‘Reform to perform: how to boost business in Europe’ session, Mr Wurth went on to say “As a leading Europe based, global player, Arcelor Mittal is strongly committed to increasing our investment and competitiveness in Europe,” He stated that Arcelor Mittal would work closely with the European Union to achieve mutually beneficial goals in the fight against climate change amongst other issues.

Arcelor Mittal has already reduced CO2 emissions by more the 20% since 1990, exceeding European Kyoto targets by about two and half times. Mr Wurth underlined that “However, the more efficient we become, the harder it is to make further significant reductions”, he added that the current scheme of reducing CO2 allowances in Europe was unlikely to solve the global climate change problem. “We believe a sector-specific approach is needed to achieve ambitious but realistic and cost-effective CO2 reductions. Climate change needs to be tackled globally.”

In addition Mr Wurth also took the opportunity to highlight the importance of combining the forces of business and politics in the fields of R&D, trade, education and training.

More information about the Business Summit here