bold spirit - ArcelorMittal South Africa

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ArcelorMittal South Africa
Annual Report 2010
Product responsibility
While we hold a dominant position
within the local steel industry, it is
a relatively small part of the global
industry. Given the strategic role
of steel in the development of our
infrastructure and economy, we see
the need to support local industry
where possible. Local customers
need high-quality products at a
competitive price to grow, but
international supply and demand
dynamics set the global steel price.
Our challenge is finding the right
balance while running a long-term
sustainable business.
Customer satisfaction
We interact with our customers
as part of its day-to-day business
activities. Every year we measure
our ability to deliver on our
customers’ expectations through a
customer satisfaction survey and
every third year we use an external
reviewer to survey customer
satisfaction levels. The results of
the external survey conducted this
year showed that we have improved
on the service delivered to our
customers since 2007. The top
three complaints from customers
regarding service remain:
• On time in full (OTIF) delivery of
material outside promised delivery
date.
• Lead time from order placement to
delivery is to long.
• Poor product quality.
Ongoing initiatives are in place to
improve these aspects of our service
delivery.
Recycling of product
Our strategy is to recycle as much
of our product and packaging as
possible. We use scrap steel in our
electric arc furnaces, accounting
for around 20% of the steel we
produce. We are also partners with
Nampak in Collect-a-Can, a nonprofit
enterprise that focuses on
recovering scrap tinplate generated
in the tinplate and can-making
processes and recovering cans for
recycling. This initiative is the only
one in the world where producers
of material for steel cans and the
can manufacturer have led the
drive to recover used materials.
Established in 1993, the recovery
rate of cans has risen from 18% to
69% in 2009. Not only have steel
beverage cans fallen from around
8% of total litter to less than 1%,
but the organisation also pays out
more than R20 million every year to
an estimated 160 000 collectors,
most of whom have no other source
of income. We aim to achieve
a recycling rate of 72% of can
packaging in South Africa.