ANNUAL REPORT ARCELOR 2003 - paperJam

Domestic electrical appliance marketUGINE & ALZ is the preferred supplier for the majormanufacturers of large domestic electrical appliances,with 35% of stainless steel supplies to this market.To meet customer expectations, UGINE & ALZ isdeveloping new stainless steel grades that offer,for example, a new surface finish for the kitchen:a homogeneous and reproducible etched surface,a surface with multi-directional patterns that is retainedafter forming and affords design flexibility and freedom.In the cutlery segment, UGINE & ALZ perfected astainless steel grade offering high-performance,particularly in terms of hardness, to satisfy therequirements of this market.Automotive marketThe automotive market represents 20% of the revenuesof the Stainless Steels sector, with 14% in the exhaustmarket alone. Combining the properties of corrosionresistance,mechanical strength and shock absorption,increasing use is being made of stainless steels instructural components, safety-critical parts and fueltanks, making it possible to reduce the weight of thevehicle structure, offering potential reductions in fuelconsumption.A number of development projects carried out in partnershipwith customers have been launched in the exhaustpipe market in order to meet expectations in respect ofcompetitiveness.General industry marketThe general industry market is one of the leading marketsfor stainless steel in terms of volume. The food andpharmaceutical, heating, transport and process industriesare major customers in this segment.In the field of heating, UGINE & ALZ is accelerating thedevelopment of ferritic stainless steel grades as asubstitute for other materials (enamelled steel),particularly for hot-water cylinders and condensingboilers.In transportation, UGINE & ALZ is developing, inpartnership with its customers, grades that meet theneed for lighter products, primarily for containers.Due to its “cleanability” properties, stainless steel isin increasing demand for highly sensitive applicationsin terms of hygiene and health (hospitals, industrialkitchens, etc.).The construction marketStainless steel continues to grow in the constructionmarket, in addition to developments for roofing (coatedand uncoated) and cladding.Sales network and service centresIn Europe, UGINE & ALZ relies on a network of eightservice centres in seven countries and a network of salesoffices in all European countries.Arcelor Stainless International (ASI) markets the flatproducts of all business units outside their domesticmarket and long products in certain regions. ASI strengthenedits organisation in 2003 with the establishmentof three new facilities: a service centre in Vietnam, therevamping of the service centre in the USA, and theconstruction of a service centre dedicated to hot-rolledproducts in Malaysia.ASI has a presence in about forty countries with servicecentres in Australia, China, the United States, Turkey andVietnam.In Bytom, Poland, the Distribution-Processing-Tradingsector and the Stainless Steels sector have broughttogether their respective service centres under acommon roof in order to develop the local market underthe best conditions.3.2. Stainless steel long productsUgitech, born of the merger between Ugine SavoieImphy S.A. and Sprint Métal S.A. in December 2003, isan integrated unit dedicated to upstream long products(steelshop, rolling mill), to downstream processingactivities (bar finishing, wiredrawing) and to distribution.Faced for several years with a deep erosion of marginsin a European market with fragmented supply and weakgrowth, Ugitech embarked on a commercial, administrativeand logistics restructuring programme. Thisadaptation plan aimed at improving financial performancealso resulted in industrial restructuring: the rod milland finishing shops at Imphy (Nièvre, France) are nowdedicated to alloy products.activities of the Group > stainless steels, alloys and special platesANNUAL REPORT ARCELOR 2003 53