ArcelorMittal Annual Report 2008

Message from the Chairman and CEO continued
The current climate will also not
compromise the way we do business
or our core values of Sustainability, Quality
and Leadership. At our senior management
convention last September in Delhi,
I said that the priority of this Company
is to produce Safe Sustainable Steel.
This is not dependent on the quantity
of steel we produce, but is the basic
operating philosophy that we seek to apply
to every tonne produced and it will not
be compromised by economic fluctuations.
We have introduced several important
initiatives that support this philosophy
during 2008.
First of all safety. 2008 saw not only
a repeat of our successful annual Health
and Safety Day, but also the launch of our
new Health and Safety drive, ‘Journey
to Zero’. ‘Journey to Zero’ is all about
reaching world class standards by
integrating Health and Safety into the
performance management system of the
Group. The driving philosophy is that,
if some parts of the ArcelorMittal Group
can deliver best practices, then all parts
can do so. By learning together and
sharing best practices across the entire
organization, we can achieve high impact
Health and Safety improvements that
protect the Company’s greatest asset
– our people. In order to leverage this
potential, we have identified 15 high
priority plants where the improvement
plans will be monitored on a weekly
basis with the direct involvement of the
corporate Health and Safety team.
We are making progress. The Lost Time
Injury Frequency Rate improved in 2008
to 2.3, compared with 3.3 in 2007.
But our ‘Journey to Zero’ continues.
4
If we aspire to our steel being
accident-free, we also aspire to it being
sustainable. Of course steel, as the
most recyclable material in the world,
is naturally sustainable. But we want to
go beyond this. We want to ensure that
our business position in the world
creates sustainable benefits for all our
stakeholders. This desire has translated
into a new Corporate Responsibility
(‘CR’) strategy focused on three key
areas: Investing in our People through
innovative HR policies; Making Steel
More Sustainable through focusing
on continuous improvement in
environmental performance; and Enriching
our Communities through engaging
more transparently with communities
and working in active partnership with
local organizations. We see tremendous
scope for results in these areas. As one
of the largest businesses in the world,
we have the ability to have a far-reaching
and positive influence in many different
areas. We hope our new CR strategy
will help us deliver on this ability.
And finally there is steel itself.
We continue to produce on a daily basis
one of the most useful, durable and
necessary materials in terms of building
the infrastructure of the modern world.
The Shanghai World Financial Center,
the Freedom Tower in New York and
the Federation Tower in Moscow
– these are just some of the renowned
global structures made from ArcelorMittal
steel. This is a big responsibility.
Therefore, whatever the economic climate,
we must ensure that the quality of our
steel is never compromised – that in
every country where customers buy
our steel they will be guaranteed the
highest quality product. We are continually
evaluating opportunities to improve
our service to customers.
This is why we invest in Research
and Development (R&D) and are expanding
our network of R&D centers around
the Group. Our team of 1,500 researchers
is working daily on new ways to make
lighter, stronger, more environmentally
friendly steel.
Looking ahead, there can be no doubt
that 2009 will be very challenging
for our Company. Whilst I hope that
the various government stimulus packages
will start to bring some relief, we must
recognize that we are in the midst of
an exceptionally difficult period for the
global economy to which there is no
easy or swift solution. Nevertheless,
I am pleased with the way the Company
has adapted so far. Our strategy has been
built around designing a company of such
a scale and diversity that it has the
strength, flexibility and presence to adapt
itself to fluctuations in the economic cycle.
This current cycle is more extreme than
most, but the fact that we have been
able to adapt swiftly and take decisive
and substantial measures will, I believe,
assist in bringing a faster recovery
for our Company than might have been
the case otherwise.