Internal and external communication at ArcelorMittal Gent

Universiteit Gent Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte Meertalige Bedrijfscommunicatie Academiejaar 2008-2009

Internal and external communication at ArcelorMittal Gent

Scriptie voorgelegd aan de Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte tot het behalen van het diploma van Master in de Meertalige Bedrijfscommunicatie

Hannelore Blomme Promotor: Geert Jacobs

Tabel met beschrijving van de stage Bedrijf

Stagebegeleider

Afdeling

Naam : ArcelorMittal Gent

Barbara De Lembre

Interne en Externe Communicatie

Straat : John Kennedylaan 51 Postnummer + Gemeente : B-9042 Gent

Taken

-

-

Telefoon : +32 (0)9 347 31 11 -

Webteksten reviseren en de website updaten Het persoverzicht maken: opzoeken, vertaling en synthese van relevante persberichten Interviews afnemen en uitschrijven voor het bedrijfsmagazine Meedraaien op de afdeling in het algemeen: vergaderingen bijwonen, brochures nalezen …

Talen tijdens de stage

Stageperiode

Engels, Nederlands, Frans

27/04 t.e.m. 26/05

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT

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Preface I have always considered my internship as one of the more important aspects of the master of multilingual business communication. Before that, I did not have a clue of how companies work and what people do every day from nine to five, especially people of the communication department. I also wanted to find out whether working in a company is really something for me. I chose ArcelorMittal Gent for my internship for several reasons. First of all, I was very much attracted by the contents of the internships as described in the brochure: I have a passion for writing and for languages and at the communication department, I would be able to put my background of translating into practice. Secondly, ArcelorMittal Gent is part of a huge company, the world‟s largest steel producer. The plant alone has the size of a small town. I figured it would be very interesting to learn how things are organized there, and, most importantly, how communication works. Thirdly, I was already somehow familiar with ArcelorMittal, since a group of students of multilingual business communication performed a research project about the external communication of ArcelorMittal Gent. Moreover, during the last year of my training as a translator-interpreter, a spokesperson from ArcelorMittal Flat Carbon Europe went to the University College to speak about the merger between Arcelor and Mittal Steel and the creation of a new ArcelorMittal brand. Already, I was very attracted to the company and its values. Thanks to my colleagues, the internship has been a great success. This would not have been possible without Jan Cornelis, head of the communication department at ArcelorMittal Gent, who gave me the opportunity to work at his department for over two months. For this and for his openness, advice and contribution to this thesis, I owe him many thanks. My gratitude also goes to my internship supervisors, Barbara De Lembre and Davy Van Swael. They have advised and guided me and made sure the internship was highly instructive. Together with my other colleagues, Jeroen Opde Beeck, Annick Küntziger and Martine Callaert, and my colleague intern Hélène Coeuignart, they created a positive and agreeable atmosphere, which made me look forward to coming to work every day.


3

In particular I would like to thank Dieter Vandenhende, who was so kind as to offer me loads of information on the communication of the merger between Arcelor and Mittal Steel. This preface is also an opportunity to thank my fellow students at multilingual business communication, for their efforts in bringing the numerous projects to a good end. Of course, I cannot forget to mention Luc De Bie, our coordinator, who is irreplaceable when it comes down to organising and good advice. A word of thanks also go to my parents, who not only gave me the opportunity to go for a second diploma, but also supported me very much in obtaining it. Last but not least, my thanks go to my boyfriend, Jeroen. Without his endless support and comprehension, I would have had a hard time to make it through the intensive and stressful year of multilingual business communication.


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Table of Contents Tabel met beschrijving van de stage ..................................................................................... 1 Preface.................................................................................................................................. 2 Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. 4 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 7 1

ArcelorMittal ................................................................................................................... 8 1.1

The company ...................................................................................................... 8

1.1.1 Activities .............................................................................................................. 8 1.1.2 Structure ............................................................................................................. 8 1.1.3 Mission, values and Code of Conduct ................................................................. 9 1.1.4 Short History ......................................................................................................10 1.1.5 Management ......................................................................................................10 1.1.6 Business Strategy ..............................................................................................12 1.1.7 Corporate Social Responsibility ..........................................................................12 1.1.8 Markets and products .........................................................................................16 1.1.9 The competition..................................................................................................17 1.2

ArcelorMittal Gent ..............................................................................................20

1.2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................20 1.2.2 Short history .......................................................................................................20 1.2.3 Mission and values .............................................................................................21 1.2.4 Management ......................................................................................................23 1.2.5 The production process ......................................................................................24 1.2.6 Markets and products .........................................................................................26 1.2.7 Corporate Social Responsibility ..........................................................................27 1.2.8 The Internal and External Communication Department ......................................30 1.2.8.1

Members ...................................................................................................30


5

1.2.8.2

Activities ....................................................................................................30

1.2.8.3

The corporate magazine ...........................................................................32

1.2.8.4

External communication ............................................................................32

1.2.9 The financial crisis..............................................................................................33

1.3

2

1.2.9.1

Impact .......................................................................................................33

1.2.9.2

Measures ..................................................................................................35

Conclusion: a SWOT-analysis of ArcelorMittal Gent ...........................................39 1.3.1.1

Strengths...................................................................................................39

1.3.1.2

Weaknesses .............................................................................................40

1.3.1.3

Threats......................................................................................................41

1.3.1.4

Opportunities.............................................................................................41

Communicating organisational change ..........................................................................42 2.1

Theoretic background.........................................................................................42

2.1.1 Introduction: organisational change: a case of crisis communication? ................42 2.1.2 Do‟s and don‟ts ..................................................................................................43 2.1.3 Conclusion .........................................................................................................46 2.2

Case study: internal communication of the merger between Arcelor and Mittal ..47

2.2.1 Introduction: the merger .....................................................................................47 2.2.2 Main challenges .................................................................................................48 2.2.3 ArcelorMittal: a new brand ..................................................................................49 2.2.3.1

Brand identity ............................................................................................49

2.2.3.2

Implementing the brand.............................................................................50

2.2.3.3

Communicating the brand .........................................................................51

2.3

Internal communication by the Group .................................................................52

2.4

Internal communication at ArcelorMittal Gent .....................................................53

2.4.1 Sidmar Nieuws/”1”..............................................................................................54 2.4.2 “Sidmar Berichten” .............................................................................................55


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2.4.3 Information screens ............................................................................................56 2.5 3

Evaluation ..........................................................................................................56

My internship at the department of internal and external communications .....................60 3.1

Revising and updating the website .....................................................................60

3.1.1 Background ........................................................................................................60 3.1.2 Briefing ...............................................................................................................60 3.1.3 Examples ...........................................................................................................62 3.1.4 Evaluation ..........................................................................................................62 3.2

Writing and translating texts for “1” .....................................................................62

3.2.1 Background ........................................................................................................62 3.2.2 Briefing ...............................................................................................................63 3.2.3 Examples ...........................................................................................................65 3.2.4 Evaluation ..........................................................................................................65 3.3

Press overview ...................................................................................................65

3.3.1 Background ........................................................................................................65 3.3.2 Briefing ...............................................................................................................66 3.3.3 Example .............................................................................................................66 3.3.4 Evaluation ..........................................................................................................66 4

5

General evaluation ........................................................................................................67 4.1

Professional skills...............................................................................................67

4.2

Social skills ........................................................................................................68

4.3

My internship within MTB ...................................................................................69

Bibliography ..................................................................................................................71


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Introduction The aim of this thesis is twofold. On the one hand, it provides a case study on communicating organisational change: the internal communication of the merger between steel company‟s Arcelor and Mittal Steel, together forming ArcelorMittal, the largest steel company in the world. On the other hand, it is a report on my internship at the department of internal and external communication (IEC) at ArcelorMittal Gent. This thesis consists of four major chapters. In the first chapter, I will give a presentation of the company I did my internship at: ArcelorMittal Gent. First, I will focus on the ArcelorMittal Group, commenting on its activities, structure and management, as well as on its business strategy, markets and products, and competition. Next, I will comment on the ArcelorMittal plant in Ghent. I will say something about the management, the production process and about Corporate Social Responsibility projects. I will end this part with a focus on the department of internal and external communication (IEC), where my internship took place, and with some more information on how the company is coping with the current financial crisis. Chapter one is closed by a SWOT-analysis of the company. The second chapter contains a case study on internal communication of organisational change. I will first provide an overview of the advice that is given to companies by communication experts on how to communicate major changes within an organisation, which is in many ways similar to crisis communication. Then I will have a look at how the ArcelorMittal Group and ArcelorMittal Gent in particular have communicated the ArcelorMittal merger to their employees, and compare it with the do‟s and don‟ts given by communication experts. The third chapter concerns the internship itself. I will describe and evaluate the tasks that have been accorded to me, providing an example of each task. The fourth and final chapter contains a final conclusion on the internship: I will give a general assessment of my internship within the framework of my studies of multilingual business communication and my background of translating and interpreting.


1

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ArcelorMittal

1.1 The company 1.1.1 Activities ArcelorMittal is the world‟s leading steel production company, with production sites in Asia, America, Africa and Europe1. The company is headquartered in Luxembourg City, the official seat of Arcelor before the merger with Mittal. ArcelorMittal produces 10% of the global steel production (or 103,3 million tons of steel in 2008), employing over 326,000 employees in more than 60 countries2. It is the number one supplier in a number of major global markets, including automotive, construction, household appliances and packaging. ArcelorMittal is listed on the stock exchanges of Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Brussels, Luxembourg and on the Spanish stock exchanges of Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia. In 2007, 34% of the output was produced in Western Europe, 21% in Canada and the USA, 15% in South-America, 13% in central and Eastern Europe and 10% in Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. 1.1.2 Structure ArcelorMittal is divided into the following segments, called “business units”3: 1. Flat Carbon Americas: 11% of employees; 2. Flat Carbon Europe: 22% of employees; 3. Long Carbon Americas and Europe: 18% of employees; 4. Asia, Africa and CIS: 40% of employees; 5. Stainless Steel: 4% of employees; 6. Steel Solutions and Services: 4% of employees. 1

Source: ArcelorMittal, s.d. Profile. Retrieved 04/09/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=9 2 These figures date back from before the financial crisis. 3 Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647


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ArcelorMittal Gent belongs to Flat Carbon Europe. More information on flat and long products can be found in chapter 1.1.8 Markets and products. 1.1.3 Mission, Values and Code of Conduct The brand promise of ArcelorMittal is “transforming tomorrow”. The mission statement explains this slogan: “We know that our position in the steel industry brings unique responsibilities. We are committed to setting globally recognised standards with the needs of future generations in mind. Our goal is to provide the leadership that will transform tomorrow's steel industry. We have a clear vision of the future, underpinned by a consistent set of values: Sustainability: We are guiding the evolution of steel to secure the best future for the industry and for generations to come. Our commitment to the world around us extends beyond the bottom line, to include the people in whom we invest, the communities we support and the world in which we operate. This long-term approach is central to our business philosophy. Quality: We look beyond today to envision the steel of tomorrow. Because quality outcomes depend on quality people, we seek to attract and nurture the best people to deliver superior solutions to our customers. Leadership: We are visionary thinkers, creating opportunities every day. This entrepreneurial spirit brought us to the forefront of the steel industry. Now, we are moving beyond what the world expects of steel.”4 These three values can be found on the website and on every brochure. The ArcelorMittal Group has also published a Code of Conduct, consisting of ten principles: 1. We must always conduct business in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. 2. We must observe applicable competition law and antitrust rules in all business dealings. 3. We will never use Insider Knowledge for operations in the company‟s shares or securities. 4

Source: ArcelorMittal, s.d. Philosophy. Retrieved 24/04/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=8


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4. We will always ensure strict respect of the company and its representatives with anticorruption rules. 5. We will always promote a healthy and safe working environment and accept no compromise in this area. 6. We will ensure that the ArcelorMittal working environment is free of any form of harassment or discrimination and that each person is treated with fairness and dignity. 7. We will comply with all applicable environmental legislation and keep the company‟s environmental impact to a minimum wherever we operate. 8. We treat all suppliers and customers with integrity, fairness and mutual respect. 9. We will avoid any situation where our personal interests conflict or could conflict with our obligations and the interest of the company. 10. We will protect ArcelorMittal assets and confidential information and use them only in connection with the business of the company. These basic values and ethical standards are to be observed by every employee in every site.5 1.1.4 Short History ArcelorMittal was created when two of the world‟s leading steel companies, Arcelor and Mittal Steel, merged in 2006. The merger process is more thoroughly described in chapter 2.2.1 Introduction: the merger. 1.1.5 Management The Board of Directors is responsible for the strategic direction of ArcelorMittal. It counts 16 members, 12 of whom are independent. Eight nationalities are represented, which reflects the international reach of the company. The Board of Directors delegates the day-to-day management to the Group Management Board, a committee of senior executive managers that is answerable to the Board.6

5

Source: ArcelorMittal Gent, 2009. Annual Review 2008. Retrieved 2/06/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/gent/repository/Publicaties/SidmarjaarverslagNL.pdf 6 Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647

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The chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of ArcelorMittal is Mr. Lakshmi N. Mittal, the former owner of Mittal Steel. He is also a non-executive director at ArcelorMittal South Africa, and occupies many other positions: he is an executive committee member of the International Iron and Steel Institute, as well as a member of the Foreign

Investment

Council

in

Kazakhstan,

the

International

Investment Council in South Africa, the World Economic Forum's International Business Council, ICICI Bank Limited's Board of Directors and Goldman Sachs' Board of Directors. He also sits on the Advisory Board of the Kellogg School of Management in the US. He has won many prestigious awards, such as the Dwight D. Eisenhower Global Leadership Award in 2007, the title of Man of the Year by the Financial Times in 2006, Business Person of 2006 by the Sunday Times, Gewinner 2006 by The Welt and Newsmaker of the year by Time magazine. Mittal began his career in the early 70s in his family‟s steel company in India. He now resides in Kensington, London and is linked with the political party New Labour. He personally owned 19.3 billion dollars in 2008 and is the world‟s eighth richest billionaire as from March 2009.7 However, due to the economic recession, he is said to have lost 60% of his fortune. Still, he remains Great Britain‟s richest person for the fifth year in row8. Other important managers at ArcelorMittal are: 

Aditya Mittal – Chief Financial Officer and chair of the Corporate Finance and Tax Committee. He is responsible for Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and business development, Flat Americas, strategy, investor relations and communications. He is the son of Mr. Lakshmi Mittal.



Michel Wurth - member of the Group Management Board,

responsible for Flat

Europe, steel solutions and services, product development and R&D, Global Customers & Automotive, plates and packaging. 

Gonzalo Urquijo - member of the Group Management Board, responsible for long products, China, stainless, tubular products, corporate responsibility and the

7

Sources: ArcelorMittal, s.d. Board of Directors. Retrieved 14/04/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=241; Wikipedia, s.d., Lakshmi Mittal. Retrieved 14/04/2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi_Mittal 8 Source: De Standaard, 27/04/2009. Mittal verliest meest. Retrieved 01/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=4Q29GTIR


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ArcelorMittal Foundation. He is chairman of the Investment Allocation Committee (IAC). 

Sudhir Maheshwari - member of the Group Management Board, responsible for M&A and business development and India. He is alternate chairman of the Corporate Finance and Tax Committee.

 Christophe Cornier - member of the Group Management Board, responsible for Asia, Africa, India, CTO, Steel Greenfield Projects Execution, and Project Manufacturing. He is also member of the IAC.

 Davinder Chugh - member of the Group Management Board, responsible for Shared Services and member of the IAC member.9 1.1.6 Business Strategy The key strategic factors at ArcelorMittal are “vertical integration, size and scale, product diversity, continuous growth in higher-value products and strong customer focus”10. In his ArcelorMittal Growth plan 2012, CFO Aditya Mittal established the goal of producing 131 million tons more by 2012, which involves an increase in shipments of 20%. He argues that ArcelorMittal is able to reach that goal thanks to its geographical spread and product diversity. The growth strategy is mainly based on maintaining a high level of product diversification (to meet the needs of both developing countries and mature markets), downstream integration and mergers and acquisitions. Countries that are increasing their steel usage considerably, such as India, particularly offer great opportunities.11 However, the economic crisis has struck the steel industry severely. I have elaborated on the crisis and the consequences for ArcelorMittal in chapter 1.2.9 The financial crisis. 1.1.7 Corporate Social Responsibility ArcelorMittal aims to “provide long-term career prospects for its employees, act as a responsible corporate citizen and work to transform and improve the long-term prospects of the communities in which it operates.”12

9

Source: ArcelorMittal, s.d. Board of Directors. Retrieved 14/04/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=241 10 Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647 11 Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647 12 Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647


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1) Health and Safety Safety is a primary issue at ArcelorMittal: every meeting of the Group Management Board begins with a Health and Safety review. As early as in March 2007, a new Health and Safety policy, aimed at reducing the frequency of accidents, was launched and implemented in every business unit. As a result, the rate of injuries fell in 2007 to 3.2 per million working hours, compared with 4.2 in 2006.13 An important programme at ArcelorMittal is called “Journey to Zero”, referring to the ambition to have zero injuries and zero illnesses in the future. It is ArcelorMittal‟s goal to become the world‟s safest steel company.

The logo of Journey to Zero

Moreover, every year in spring, a “Health and Safety Day” is organized, in which every employee at every production site is involved. The event traditionally begins with a speech from Mr. Mittal himself, followed by various events. This year, the event took place on April 28th, coinciding with the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) World Day for Safety and Health at Work. In Ghent, for instance, there has been a contest in forklift truck skills, a session on stress at work, a workshop on how to lift heavy objects, and so on (you can find a reportage on the Health and Safety day in Gent in the annexes, chapter 4.1.4 Others: reportage). This years‟ theme was “Leading the Journey”: a combination of “Journey to Zero” and “Leading by Example”.14

13

Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647 14 Source: ArcelorMittal, 28/04/2009. ArcelorMittal holds Group-wide health and safety day. Retrieved 14/05/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=33&tb0=62


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2) Human Resources “The Human Resources function focuses its activities on three key areas: 

Develop and recruit talents and offer challenging and rewarding careers in the dynamic and growing steel and mining industries;



Enable employees at all levels to contribute to the best of their ability to the objectives and success of the Group‟s business and ensure a sufficient talent pool for the future leadership of the group;



Build and maintain good relations with the employees and their representatives.”15

Whenever vacancies appear, internal candidates are given priority. To encourage this, an interactive website, JobMarketOnline, was launched. In 2007, the Corporate University was launched. Its programmes include: 

Health and Safety Academy;



Health and Safety training for all employees and sub-contractors;



Intensive language training in English and local languages to facilitate integration;



Core Leadership and Management Skills programmes;



Talent Pipeline Programmes to grow future leaders;



Technical and Functional Academies.

All programmes are “tailored to the ArcelorMittal vision, mission and brand values”.16 Furthermore, there is the “Knowledge Management Programme”, the aim of which is to bring together “the key people involved in a given function or technical area, thereby facilitating the exchange of best practices and knowledge throughout the Group.”17 3) Environment In July 2007, a new environmental policy was launched, consisting of ten environmental principles to be adhered to in all plants worldwide. ArcelorMittal focuses on atmospheric emissions, water flows, residues management and contribution to climate change.

15

Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647 16 Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647 17 Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647


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In its brochures, the Group also emphasizes that “steel can be endlessly recycled without any reduction in its performance and hence is sustainable by its basic characteristics. Globally, recycling steel brings about 600 million tons of CO2 savings annually.”18 Additionally, ArcelorMittal is continuously improving its processes, seeking to reduce its energy consumption, together with the CO2 emissions. For that purpose, the company is working together with the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) “to develop a sector approach to CO2 monitoring and reduction, to be supported by all major steel producing countries.”19 4) Local communities To coordinate the community activities around the world in which the Group engages, The ArcelorMittal Foundation was established in 2007. This association is chaired by Mr. Kinsch, its mission being “to promote ArcelorMittal‟s commitment to local communities where it is present and to contribute to their development in a sustainable way.”20 Examples of projects are the rebuilding of roads and a railway line in Liberia or the promotion of small businesses in Brazil. 5) Shareholders “By implementing high standards of financial information disclosure and providing clear, regular, transparent and even-handed information to all its shareholders, ArcelorMittal aims to be the first choice of investors in the sector.”21 6) Research and Development Since quality is one of ArcelorMittals core values and since the company is committed to “stay at the forefront of steel industry innovation”22, R&D is of paramount importance. More than 1,400 researchers are employed in 14 research centres around the world, and the R&D budget amounted to 214 million US dollars in 2007.

18

Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647 19 Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647 20 Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647 21 Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647 22 Source: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book) Retrieved 14/01/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647


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1.1.8 Markets and products ArcelorMittal is active in four major markets: domestic appliances and household equipment, automotive, construction and street furniture and industry. Its products can be grouped in four main groups: flat products, long products, stainless steel and “steel solutions and services”. Furthermore, mining is also considered one of the Group‟s core activities.23 Flat products Flat steel products are sold to customers in the sectors of appliance, automotive, construction, energy and packaging. Examples are hot rolled coils, cold rolled coils, hot dip galvanized steel, aluminized steel, tinplate, organic coated steel etc. Long products Long products are used in agriculture, appliances, automotive, cold drawn, construction, converter/re-roller, and energy & mining. Examples are bars, rails, crash barriers, wire rod etc. Stainless Steel Stainless Steel products are used in all ArcelorMittal‟s major markets: domestic appliances and household equipment, automotive, construction and street furniture and industry. Steel Solutions and Services “Steel Solutions and Services” is an umbrella term for any other adaptations the steel undergoes before being distributed to the costumer, such as cutting or coating. Mining ArcelorMittal wants to integrate its business as much as possible, and therefore wants to be as self-sufficient as possible where raw materials are concerned. At the moment, the Group is one of the largest producers of iron worldwide, with mining activities in Algeria, Bosnia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the United States.24

23

Source: ArcelorMittal, s.d. Products and Services. Retrieved 05/05/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=33&tb0=62 24 Source: ArcelorMittal, s.d. Mining. Retrieved 10/05/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=728

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INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT 1.1.9 The competition

As has been mentioned earlier, ArcelorMittal is the world‟s leading steel company and responsible for 10% of the global steel production. This table shows its production compared to its main rivals:25

Position

Output of crude oil in million metric tons, 2007

Company

Country Luxembourg

116.4

ArcelorMittal

2.

35.7

Nippon Steel

Japan

3.

34.0

JFE

Japan

4.

31.1

POSCO

South-Korea

5.

28.6

Baosteel

China

6.

26.5

Tata Steel

India

7.

23.6

Anshan-Benxi

U.S.A.

8.

22.9

Jiangsu Shagang

China

9.

22.8

Tangshan

China

10.

21.5

US Steel

U.S.A.

1.

ArcelorMittal is the clear market leader: with an output of 116.4 million tons in 2007, it is three times larger than its direct competitor, the Japanese Nippon Steel. Nippon Steel is the second largest steel company in the world and the world‟s most profitable one. It is the result of a merger in 1970 of Yawata Iron and Steel and Juji Iron and steel. The head office is based in Tokio. Next to steel, it also produces chemical materials.26 JFE is the result of a merger between NKK and Kawasaki Steel Corporation in 2002. It is headquartered in Tokio and is engaged in steel, engineering, construction, logistics and chemicals. The company also has several oversees subsidiaries.27

25

Source: World Steel Association, 2009. 2009 News releases. Retrieved 15/05/2009 from http://www.worldsteel.org/?action=newslist 26 Source: Wikipedia, s.d. Nippon Steel. Retrieved 15/05/2009 from http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Steel 27 Source: Wikipedia, s.d. JFE Holdings. Retrieved 15/05/2009 from http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFE_Holdings


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POSCO, the fourth largest steel company in the world, is located in Seoul, South Korea, and was privatised in 2000. The company owns additional blast furnaces in China, Vietnam, India and Mexico.28 Besides other steel plants, however, one of ArcelorMittal‟s largest rivals might the aluminium industry. Aluminium is also and increasingly used in automotive, construction and household applications, and it allows to build constructions that are 50% lighter than steel constructions.29 In Steel Grips, a journal on steel and related materials, the following was published in February this year30: “The density of CNT-reinforced [Carbon Nanotubes reinforced] aluminum is only around one third that of steel, and the material can therefore support any number of applications in which the aim is to reduce weight and energy consumption by means of lightweight construction. With its combination of high strength and low weight, it is an alternative to steel, expensive specialty metals such as titanium, and carbon-fiberreinforced plastics.” However, when I interviewed Jan Cornelis, head of the department of internal and external communication at ArcelorMittal Gent, he stated that aluminium is not ArcelorMittal‟s number one concern. He said that aluminium has numerous disadvantages compared to steel: it is more expensive than steel, not recyclable and not magnetic, and thus hard to separate from other products. The world's leading aluminium producing companies are Rio Tinto Alcan (Canada), Alcoa (US) and Rusal (Russia). Another possible threat to the steel industry are so called “Metal Matrix Composites”. This is a composite material with at least two parts, one being a metal, the other a different metal or another material.31 The product has many advantages, such as:32

28

Source: Wikipedia, s.d. POSCO. Retrieved 15/05/2009 from http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSCO Source: Broeckx, K, Verstraeten, B, Vennekens, R, March 2003, Aluminium, het material van de toekomst. Retrieved 19/05/2009 from http://www.bil-ibs.be/nl/Metallerie/pdf/N11MET47okp.pdf 30 Source: Steel Grips, 20/02/2009. Carbon-nanotubes-reinforced aluminum - an alternative to steel? Retrieved 20/05/2009 from http://www.steel-grips.com/newsdesk/rd_news/Carbon-nanotubes-reinforced_aluminum__an_alternative_to_steel.html 31 Source: Wikipedia, s.d. Metal Matrix Composite. Retrieved 28/05/2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_matrix_composite 29

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT 

Increased specific strength;



Increased specific stiffness;



Increased elevated temperature strength;



Improved wear resistance;



Lower density;



Improved damping capabilities;



Tailorable thermal expansion coefficients;



Good corrosion resistance.

19

Again, according to Jan Cornelis, the ArcelorMittal board is not really worried about this threat. It strongly believes in steel, since steel can absorb more energy than composites. This is for instance important in a car crash: the energy that is released in the crash will be partly absorbed by the steel. Steel cars are therefore safer.

32

Source: Composite Metal Technologies PLC, s.d. Metal Matrix Composite. Retrieved 28/05/2009 from http://www.cmt-ltd.com/html/mat_1.htm


20

1.2 ArcelorMittal Gent 1.2.1 Introduction ArcelorMittal Gent is a maritime and integrated steel plant within the ArcelorMittal Group. Before the financial crisis, the company employed 5.680 people, and every year, 5 million tons of flat steel left the plant. Customers are mainly car producers and industrial companies, for instance, various domestic appliances and furniture are produced with ArcelorMittal Gentmade steel. The plant is located on the right bank of the Canal Ghent-Terneuzen, at about 25 km from the centre of Ghent. ArcelorMittal Gent is active in the business unit “Flat Carbon Europe” within the ArcelorMittal Group. 1.2.2 Short history In 1928, the Luxembourg steel group Arbed decided to buy a plot of land alongside the Canal Ghent-Terneuzen. In 1932, the group owned 521.39 acres.33 However, plans to build a maritime steel plant were delayed until after 1950 because of the financial depression of the 1930s. On April 13th 1960, Flemish and Walloon steel groups joined forces to found a research committee, the “Syndicat Sidérurgie Maritime”. Local authorities decided to help by adapting the Canal Ghent-Terneuzen, making it accessible for vessels weighing up to 65.000 tons. The building site was extended to 1,541.94 acres. A few years later, the committee agreed that the maritime steel company would produce only flat products, based on rich minerals from oversees, using modern blast furnaces with a large diameter, a steel factory and a warm-and cold rolling mill. The European Coal and Steel Commity approved of the project in 1962, upon which the public limited company “Sidmar”, short for “Sidérurgie Maritime”, was founded. During the following decades, the Belgian steel industry was restructured, and the Walloon and French steel groups gradually left the company. The Belgian state took a minority share in the company via its holding company Gimvindus. The majority of the shares was owned by Arbed, which was transformed into an industrial holding in 1994. 33

Source: ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. The history of ArcelorMittal Gent in a nutshell. Retrieved 15/05/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/gent/prg/selfware.pl?id_sitemap=29&language=EN


21

In the same year, Sidmar obtained the majority of the shares of the German maritime integrated steel company Stahlwerke Bremen. Shortly afterwards, Sidmar got its own sales organisation Sidstahl, responsible for sales of the flat steel products on the most important markets. In 1997, Arbed became a partner of the Spanish maritime steel company Aceralia, having acquired 35% of its shares. This way, Sidmar became part of the third biggest steel company in the world. Four years later, both groups announced a merger with the French steel company Usinor, creating a new concern, named Arcelor (Arbed, Aceralia, Usinor). Sidmar was from then on part of the Operational Unity North of Arcelor‟s flat carbon steel unity, which is the biggest of all operational unities. Finally, in June 2006, Arcelor reached an agreement with Mittal Steel about a merger between the groups. All production sites received a new name, and “Sidmar” became “ArcelorMittal Gent”. 1.2.3 Mission and values Surprisingly, ArcelorMittal Gent has a different mission and a different set of values than the ArcelorMittal Group34. Its mission statement is rather long: “As a producer of flat carbon steel, ArcelorMittal Gent (the new name of Sidmar) is an enterprise in basic industry. It regards safety at the workplace as its supreme priority: safety for all its employees, without making a distinction between its own personnel and external parties. Within the flat carbon steel sector of the ArcelorMittal Group, ArcelorMittal Gent strives towards leadership in the production of high-quality flat steel products in a sustainable entrepreneurial way. ArcelorMittal Gent is fully aware that this involves a great responsibility towards its shareholders, customers, employees, the immediate surroundings and the environment. The steel industry remains a basic industry with products that are essential to the world economy. ArcelorMittal Gent has the advantage of being located in one of the few sites in Europe where a maritime steel industry is still capable of further 34

Source: ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. Mission. Retrieved 15/05/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/gent/prg/selfware.pl?id_sitemap=28&language=EN


22

development. Keeping a heavy industry running in a region with a dense population and a vulnerable environment therefore represents a challenge which ArcelorMittal Gent is willing to take on at all times. By investing in research and development ArcelorMittal Gent is fully responsible for putting up top technological performances. Maintaining constant contact with customers and researching new applications in collaboration with customers are critical factors in developing new products and processes. The efforts invested in research and development are intended to optimise the life cycle of steel, starting from the raw materials extraction right through to the ultimate recovery and recycling of end products, with due respect for the environment. ArcelorMittal Gent believes in the indispensable role of human capital in the growth process of the business. In developing its human capital, ArcelorMittal Gent applies the principle of subsidiarity. All employees are encouraged to fully identify with the tasks entrusted to them and only to turn to the hierarchy if that would offer some genuine added value. ArcelorMittal Gent is conscious that its customers are the reason for its existence. In order to ensure its profitability, ArcelorMittal Gent aims for perfection in its service provision and product quality, and makes every effort to create a relationship of trust with its customers. The Group‟s international expansion creates new potential for collaboration. Exchanging know-how and merging different corporate cultures in an atmosphere of openness and mutual respect are a must for taking full advantage of this opportunity.” In my opinion, this mission is too long and it focuses on too many values. I think the mission and values of the Group are better, since they are shorter, more concise and therefore more powerful. Moreover, ArcelorMittal Gent publishes another 4 values which are again different from those already mentioned in the mission statement:35 “ArcelorMittal Gent emphasises 4 personal values: Respect: Respect - for colleagues, superiors and employees, for customers and suppliers, for all of the people with whom we work together from ArcelorMittal Gent is an essential value in our company. We appreciate everyone for their own 35

Source: ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. Values. Retrieved 15/05/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/gent/prg/selfware.pl?id_sitemap=325&language=EN


23

contribution, and respect each individual in his personality and uniqueness. We are convinced that diversity will generate creative and innovative visions. Openness: It is important that everyone feels closely involved in his/her daily activities and in ArcelorMittal Gent as a whole. Possessing the necessary information and being able to call upon the present knowledge and experience are essential for this conviction. But openness also means a readiness to hear the messages that others are sending, and making time for passing on information to colleagues beyond the limits of individual departments. Subsidiarity: Giving responsibility to people who are in the right place makes a company efficient and increases the involvement of all employees. It encourages them to perform their tasks independently, to take initiative, and thus allows them to grow in their job. Cooperation: Good mutual cooperation across positions and departments is the basis for a pleasant working atmosphere in which employees feel good about themselves and what they are doing. The outmoded oppositions between production and maintenance, factory and administration, production and sales no longer have any place. A modern company must be based on teamwork and mutual trust, on striving together for continuous improvement.”36 I asked my colleagues at the communication department why the Group does not oblige all sites to use the same mission statement and values as described in chapter 1.1.3. Mission, Values and Code of Conduct. They suggested this might be due to cultural differences, for instance, the environment in the US is considered by far not as important as in Europe. The Code of Conduct, on the other hand, has been translated to Dutch and communicated to all employees. 1.2.4 Management ArcelorMittal Gent‟s management committee consists of five members, who are responsible for the daily management of the production site. Members include:37

36

Source: ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. Company Profile. Retrieved 14/04/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/gent/prg/selfware.pl?id_sitemap=325&language=EN 37 Source: ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. Het managementcomité van ArcelorMittal Gent. Retrieved 14/04/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/gent/prg/selfware.pl?id_sitemap=585&language=NL


24

Marc Vereecke, Chief Executive Officer of ArcelorMittal Gent and president of the management committee;



Patrick Deforche, Chief Operating Officer Primary of ArcelorMittal Gent, responsible for all production departments of the warm phase;



João Félix da Silva, Chief Operating Officer Finishing of ArcelorMittal Gent, responisble for all production departments of the cold phase, customer relationships and qualtiy control;



Guy Bontinck, HR director, responsible for personnel management, management developement, education and training.

1.2.5 The production process Since it is not the aim of this thesis to give a technical description of the entire production process, I will limit myself to briefly naming the different departments of the plant and adding some elementary information:38 

Port



Raw material stockyard



Coking plant: The coking plant produces metallurgical coke from a blend of different coking coals, imported in large quantities by sea vessels.



Sinter plants: A mixture of iron ore fines, recycled ferriferous products and various fluxes are converted into an instant ore product with a chemical composition, a size distribution, a mechanical resistance and a permeability that are optimal for blast furnace operation.



Blast furnaces: The blast furnaces produce hot metal by melting iron ore in a reducing atmosphere.



Steel shop: Hot metal coming from the blast furnaces is converted into liquid steel by removing any impurities. In the next phase, the steel is casted into slabs at so-called “continuous slab casters”.



Hot strip mill: The hot strip mill heats the slabs in ovens to about 1250°C, hot rolls them in various hot rolling machines, cools them down with water and finally coils them. The result is a hot rolled coil with a thickness of 1.25 to 13 mm.

38

Source: B. De Lembre, March 2008. This is how ArcelorMittal Gent produces steel. (Corporate brochure)

25


Cold rolling mill: The cold rolling mills process the hot rolled steel strip to form a final product, the cold rolled strip, with a thickness of between 0.15 and 3 mm.



Hot dip galvanising lines (SIDGAL): The first and third hot dip galvanising lines produce galvanised sheet for the automotive industry, the second one produces galvanised sheets in thin gauges for packing industry and applications for the building industry.



Organic coating lines in Ghent and Geel: Here, the steel is provided with a layer of paint that protects the steel against corrosion (caused for example by damp or ozone) and makes it aesthetically more pleasing.



Electrolytic galvanising lines in Gent and Genk: The electrolytic galvanising lines provide steel with a corrosion resistant layer.



Blanking- and welding lines: Blanking and welding lines produce tailor-welded blanks.

Blast Blast furnaces furnaces

Cold Cold rolling rolling mill, mill, coating coating and and blanks blanks Hot Hot strip strip mill mill Steel Steel shop shop Sinter Sinter plants plants

Coking Coking plant plant

Raw Raw material material storage storage

18 18

Overview of the plant. Note that the factories are located in the order of the production process.

39

Since 1991, the productivity of the plant has increased significantly. In 2006, production peaked at about 950 tons per man annually: more than double the amount produced in 1991.

39

Source: ArcelorMittal, s.d. ArcelorMittal Gent. PowerPoint presentation. Retrieved 29/05/2009 from ArcelorMittal Gent Intranet.

26

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT Productivity (tonne/man.annum) 1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0

Shipments (mt) 4,2 3,7

3,5 3,2

3,0

3,9

4,5

4,6 4,3

4,9

4,7

4,4

4,3

4,2

3,9

4,4

5 4

3,2

3,1

3 2 1 427

456

478

570

532

602

608

609

672

718

671

788

767

858

745

948

797

818

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

00

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

Productivity

Shipments

This graph indicates the evolution in productivity and number of shipments since 1991.

0

40

1.2.6 Markets and products ArcelorMittal Gent steel is being used in the following applications:41 

Automotive;



Audio, video and domestic appliances;



Construction;



Mechanical engineering;



Sanitary facilities;



Packaging material.

Roughly, car producers purchase some 50% of ArcelorMittal Gent‟s steel. Since the car industry is very concentrated, all automotive customers are large and important. ArcelorMittal Gent works closely together with them in the field of research and development. Contracts with costumers from the car industry last several years: often for as long as a new car model is being produced. This offers security to the steel plant on the one hand, but on the other

40

Source: ArcelorMittal, s.d. ArcelorMittal Gent. PowerPoint presentation. Retrieved 29/05/2009 from ArcelorMittal Gent Intranet. 41 Source: ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. Toepassingen. Retrieved 15/05/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/gent/prg/selfware.pl?id_sitemap=2&language=NL


27

hand, when steel prices grow, it occurs that after while, the steel is being sold too cheaply. A good mix of contract duration and price is vital.42 The other 50% of the steel goes to other industries, especially domestic appliances. ArcelorMittal Gent distinguishes between so-called “white goods” (for instance washing machines) and “brown goods” (for instance steel cases for HiFi equipment). These costumers are generally much smaller than automotive costumers.43 1.2.7 Corporate Social Responsibility ArcelorMittal Gent‟s strategy for corporate social responsibility is based on the three P‟s: People, Planet and Profit.44 Please note, however, that the activities mentioned below were all organised when there was no economic crisis. In chapter 1.2.9 The financial crisis, I will comment on the current financial crisis and explain what measures the company takes to save money. 1. People ArcelorMittal Gent is concerned about in the well-being of both employees and people from the 3rd and 4th world. a) Employees Since ArcelorMittal Gent “has been able to grow to become one of the world‟s most efficient steel producing companies thanks to the efforts, knowhow and skills of its employees”, the company “devotes a lot of attention to their health, safety and job satisfaction”. Housing and infrastructure: In 2006, part of the administration building was renewed, the offices are being modernized and the corporate restaurant has been recently transformed. On top of that, an extended renovation plan for the factories has been elaborated, which will cost on average 2 million EUR a year for ten years. However, because of the financial recession, all these investments are temporarily suspended. Mobility: Employees can leave their cars at home and travel by bus to work. Moreover, ArcelorMittal stimulates transport by bike and invests in maintenance and extension of the cycle paths, in renovation of old cycle sheds and in building new ones. Recent initiatives 42

Source: An interview with Jan Cornelis, head of the department of internal and external communication at ArcelorMittal Gent. 43 Source: Ibid. 44 All information in this chapter is retrieved from the ArcelorMittal Gent website: http://www.arcelormittal.com/gent/prg/selfware.pl?id_sitemap=326&language=NL


28

include the stimulation of carpooling. During my internship, I made use of the bus service first and also carpooled to work. Day care: In summer, ArcelorMittal Gent organizes a day care service for children of employees working during the day or in the afternoon. Children between the ages of 3 and 14 are picked up on the site and brought back later during the day, after hours of sport, games and entertainment. Commitment: Every two years, Feestmar is organized: an event for all employees and their families with for instance a cruise on the Canal Ghent-Terneuzen, a walk in the forest or a visit to the company fire brigade. What‟s more, every year employees are being celebrated at the Decoration Party. Employees also get the chance to visit the Bluenote Jazz Festival in Ghent, and there is also the Vriendenkring vzw, a committee that organizes travels, activities, cultural activities etc. Finally, the company magazine “1” (formerly known as “Sidmar Nieuws”) reports news from the work floor every month, each time putting different people and services in the spotlights. It is most likely that because of the financial crisis, Feestmar, the Decoration Party and the visit to Bluenote Jazz Festival will not be organised in 2009. b) the 3rd and 4th world ArcelorMittal Gent is founding member of the Corporate Funding Programme (CFP): a “unique collaboration programme between corporations and NGO‟s, aiming to form the missing link between the corporate world and the South.” ArcelorMittal Gent is involved in projects and researches that create a surplus value to local products in countries as Senegal, Ecuador and India. The company is also concerned with social-economic problems in its own region, and it supports various small projects to help the underprivileged and create training possibilities for people at the edge of society. Examples of these projects can be found on www.arcelormittal.com/gent. 2. Planet ArcelorMittal Gent says it “is concerned with the environment in all its actions.” First of all, steel is an environmental-friendly product. On the website, some advantages of steel are mentioned: 

It is magnetic, which makes it possible to distinguish it from other materials;


It can be recycled endlessly;



Recycling steel saves energy and diminishes the CO2 emissions.

29

However, recycling steel is restricted because of quality concerns, therefore, only 20% of the raw materials needed to create steel are replaced by old steel. Every year, 15% of all investments go to measures and installations for the protection of the environment.45 ArcelorMittal Gent has received environmental awards for some of the investments. During the past 20 years, the amount of energy needed to produce one ton of steel was reduced by 30%. Therefore, ArcelorMittal Gent belongs to the world‟s most efficient energy users.

In 2003, a benchmark agreement was signed with the Flemish

government to remain at the top until 2012. In 2008, the construction of a new electricity plant on the terrain of ArcelorMittal Gent was started, which will allow the company to work even more environment friendly in the future. It is interesting to note that this investment is the only one that has not been suspended because of the financial crisis. The company has also helped creating a breakthrough in the design of car body. The newest technology, ULSAB (Ultra Light Steel Auto Body) allows to reduce the weight of the car body, meanwhile maintaining maximum safety and comfort. The weight reduction in turn reduces fuel expenditure and the emission of gasses of cars. Twice a year, an environmental meeting is organized, in collaboration with the local government, local environmental councils, nature protection associations and local inhabitants. Also, an environment report is published twice a year, containing an overview of air, water, ground and sound pollution and the usage of waste materials, raw materials and energy. The brochure gives an extensive overview of the environmental achievements and of the challenges for the future. 3. Profit Profit includes return on investments, but also cost efficiency and security of the installations. The latter demands the necessary knowhow from employees, and therefore, various committees are in charge of knowledge exchange between production sites.

45

With the exception, of course, of the current financial crisis.


30

ArcelorMittal Gent sees its costumers as its most important partner, and therefore, optimal costumer service is indispensable. This involves offering costumers the best quality within the requested term. The motto is “on time, all the time.” However, there‟s more: ArcelorMittal Gent keeps looking for newer steel solutions to meet the costumers‟ wishes. It offers expertise and advice about the best steel quality, aiming to reduce production costs and create better final products. For instance, the development of ULSAB mentioned above is beneficial for the car industry. 1.2.8 The Internal and External Communication Department 1.2.8.1 Members Members of the internal and external communication department (IEC) are: 

Jan Cornelis, secretary of the Management Board and head of the IEC;



Barbara De Lembre, in charge of graphical communication and PR;



Davy Van Swael, in charge of operational support;



Jeroen Op De Beeck, in charge of audio-visual and corporate photographer;



Martine Callaert: in charge of digital communication and information screens;



Annick Küntziger, department secretary, in charge of information screens.

1.2.8.2 Activities In 2001, there has been a wave of social unrest at the plant (then called Arcelor Gent)46. The official explanation for the troubles was that there was not enough internal communication at the plant. Therefore, a large survey was held amongst all employees via interviews, telephone calls and written questionnaires. One of the main conclusions was that the employees experienced not enough communication by their superiors and that important news was often reported too late. The internal and external communication department decided to completely revamp the structure of the department and the organisation of the communication.

46

All information from this chapter is obtained via interviews with Barbara De Lembre, who coordinated my internship.


31

First of all, at each department, LCC’s were appointed. LCC‟s are Local Communication Coordinators. They form a sort of “antenna”: they catch signals of what happens on the work floor at their department and then pass on this information to the IEC. This indicates a new bottom-up approach. But the LCC‟s also have a top-down function: all communication from the Board of Directors is passed on to the departments via them, for instance when a new action plan is put through. The LCC‟s all join one of the so called „information councils”. These councils are organized for the publication of “1” and for the intranet. Moreover, every three weeks, the steering committee Internal Communication (IC) gathers. This group contains members from both the communication department and the human resources departments in it, since both departments work together often to communicate employment issues (for instance when during the crisis, the system of temporary unemployment for white collar employees was introduced). The steering committee IC assembles the LCC‟s three times a year in an LCC-meeting. To these meetings, employees and workers are also invited to give feedback about the communication in the name of their department or shift. The LCC‟s are crucial for the IEC, because without them it is impossible to collect information and to find out what is going on in other departments. Another conclusion from the investigation was that the communication often came too late. Sidmar Nieuws, for instance, appeared only once every two months, and the information it contained was often outdated. To this purpose, three measures were taken: 

“Sidmar Berichten” (Sidmar Messages) were introduced: these are articles printed on normal paper in black-and-white that can be written and distributed easily, without the need for any difficult lay-outing. These articles are distributed swiftly all over the plant and presented regularly. Any employee passing by can take a piece of paper.



Information screens have been installed: this is also an easy way to communicate important information quickly, for instance in a crisis situation. The information on the screens is updated weekly. The screens can be found at nearly every entrance hall in every department.



Sidmar Nieuws was distributed more frequently: every month instead of every two months (with the exception of July and August). The aim of the newspaper, however, remained the same: to give background information and interesting stories about what happens in the plant rather than to spread important news.


32

1.2.8.3 The corporate magazine “1” (pronounced “one”) is the new name for the corporate magazine, formerly known as “Sidmar Nieuws”. “1” appears 10 times a year with a print run of 10.000 copies and is written for internal and former employees. Once a year, in February, the magazine is also spread to the surrounding towns. In April 2008, the company won a silver medal for “best corporate magazine 2008”. The contest was organized by the Belgian Association for Internal communication (BVIC). The jury was especially enthusiastic about the “warmth that comes from the magazine, the authentic stories and the pleasant pictures”47. In January 2009, ArcelorMittal introduced a single template for the internal communication at all plants. Thus, the title became “1” instead of „Sidmar Nieuws‟, and from then on, on the first and second pages and on a part of the last page, news from the Group was printed. The size and the number of pages was also fixed. As for the rest of the magazine, all plants are free to fill them the way they consider most interesting, on the condition that the style of ArcelorMittal is of course respected. More detailed information on the corporate magazine can be found in chapter 3.2.1 Background. More information on the rebranding of the magazine can be found in chapter 2.2.3.2 Implementing the brand. You can read some examples of articles that have been written and printed during my internship in the annexes, chapter 4.1 Articles for “1”. 1.2.8.4 External communication With external communication, ArcelorMittal Gent aims to integrate itself in the environment. Several target groups are interested in different items, such as innovation and technology, the safety policy, the environmental policy, etc.48 During the first quarter of 2009, students of Multilingual Business Communication at Ghent University investigated the image of ArcelorMittal Gent amongst people from the local community49. The most important findings were that: 47

ArcelorMittal Gent is very well known in the towns surrounding the plant;

Source: ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. Zilveren medaille voor Sidmar Nieuws. Retrieved 10/05/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/gent/prg/selfware.pl?id_sitemap=900&language=NL 48 Source: ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. Het departement interne en externe communicatie van ArcelorMittal Gent. Retrieved 03/05 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/gent/prg/selfware.pl?id_sitemap=523&language=NL 49 Source: Blomme, Leen e.a.: Imagostudie Bij De Omwonenden ArcelorMittal Gent. Ongepubliceerde paper.

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT -

33

The inhabitants perceive little communication from the plant, and Sidmar Nieuws or “1” is not very well known;

-

Both employees and non-employees think ArcelorMittal Gent is polluting the air and has a detrimental effect on their health;

-

80% of the respondents think there is not enough communication on ArcelorMittal Gent‟s environmental approach;

-

ArcelorMittal Gent scores very well as an employer: 70% regards the company as an attractive employer.

One could conclude that more external communication towards the community is required. The group of students for instance advises to issue more news more regularly and to work together with other companies at the Canal Ghent-Terneuzen where communication is concerned. 1.2.9 The financial crisis 1.2.9.1 Impact The financial crisis inevitably has severely affected ArcelorMittal, and also ArcelorMittal Gent. As early as in November 2008, ArcelorMittal had to rely on the system of economic unemployment, to help to cope with the decrease in production of 30%. Days of employment were alternated with days of unemployment, which means that in November and December 2008, about 1.800 employees have been unemployed for one or two days a week.50 On November 7th, the management, being confronted with a dramatic decrease of orders, announced an investment stop. All investment projects, including three programmes that were already running, were cancelled. This affected some 180 people, mostly employees of subcontractors. Plans to build a third blast furnace were also annulled. Furthermore, it was announced that all overhead expenses had to be reduced by 30%.51 In December 2008, ArcelorMittal announced its plans to lay off 800 employees in Belgium, among which 200 in the plant in Ghent. The company emphasized that it is about people who are not directly involved in the production process, and that there will be no compulsory

50

Source: De Standaard, 22/10/2008. Twee dagen per week werkloosheid bij ArcelorMittal. Retrieved 21/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=RK221K74_2&word=ArcelorMittal 51 Source:De Standaard, 07/11/2008. Investerings-stop Arcelor treft 180 jobs. Retrieved 21/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=OJ22LI4K&word=ArcelorMittal


34

redundancies. In a press release, ArcelorMittal confirmed that “it will work together closely with the parties involved, and conform with the social plans of the plants involved.”52 On December 12th, the Board confirmed that another 650 full-time jobs are to be scrapped. The job reduction pl/an will be spread over three years, if possible by way of early retirements or natural redundancies. The board promised that if the economy booms again, half of them will be able to return.53 On Thursday, January 22nd of 2009, the Board of ArcelorMittal Luik announced that blast furnace 6 in Luik will not be restarted on February 23th, as had been planned earlier.54 On the same day, the board of ArcelorMittal Genk announced that the production will be reduced by 50% in 2009. No employees will be laid off, but production and the number of working days will be reduced. It took the trade unions more than a month to reach an agreement on collective holidays.55 In the beginning of April 2009, two blast furnaces, one in Ghent and one in Luik, were temporarily closed. No lay-offs were associated with this.56 Later, one of the three hot dip galvanizing lines in Ghent and the organic coating line in Geel were closed temporarily as well.57 Meanwhile, ArcelorMittal Gent had to look for ways to keep the white collar workers at home as often as possible. For blue-collar workers, a system of temporary unemployment existed already in Belgium, but not yet for white collar workers and executives. Until the end of May 2009, employees had to take as many holidays or compensation days as possible, and parttime working and holidays without salary were stimulated. As from June 2009 onwards, all white collar workers have to sign contracts to work 80% of the time. Thanks to support from the government, they still receive 90% of their wages. Finally, in September 2009 at the latest, the system of economic employment for white collar workers will be implemented at the plant. Employees will be able to take a maximum of three working days a week, and will 52

Source: De Standaard, 08/02/2009. 800 banen weg bij Arcelor in België. Retrieved 21/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF08122008_041&word=ArcelorMittal 53 Source: De Standaard, 12/12/2009. ArcelorMittal schrapt 650 voltijdse banen. Retrieved 21/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF12122008_041&kanaalid=15 54 Source: De Standaard, 22/01/2009. Heropstart hoogoven 6 in Seraing uitgesteld. Retrieved 22/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF22012009_113&kanaalid=15 55 Source: De Standaard, 22/01/2009. Staalbedrijf ArcelorMittal halveert productie. Retrieved 22/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=RA25F4FL&word=ArcelorMittal 56 Source: De Standaard, 08/04/2009. Ook in Gent gaat hoogoven tijdelijk dicht. Retrieved 22/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF20090408_032&word=ArcelorMittal 57 Source: De Standaard, 09/04/2009. ArcelorMittal legt productie stil in mei. Retrieved 22/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=R828QRJ9&word=ArcelorMittal


35

retain 96% of their wages. Since this is a better arrangement for the employees, it is hoped that the system will be implemented earlier than in September, but at the moment, negotiations with the social partners are still going on. After the first quarter of 2009, the Group announced a net loss of 1.1 billion EUR.58 The crisis has brought along other inconveniences. Because of the devaluation of the rouble, for instance, Ukrainian and Russian steel producers are able to export their steel very cheaply. Also, some steel producers have adapted their production level to the crisis very slowly, producing at full potential until the end of December 2008. As a result, they now have too much supplies, which they are dumping on the market.59 1.2.9.2 Measures When orders from costumers started falling dramatically, the company took a series of measures to cut back on expenses as much as possible. These include:60 

Suspension of all investment projects;



Reduction of maintenance costs;



Cutting back Selling, General and Administrative expenses (SG&A): travel costs, telecommunication, the restaurant for visitors… The renovation of the administrative building and events such as the Blue Note Festival, Feestmar, the Decoration Party, participation to “het Festival van Vlaanderen” etc. are also cancelled;



Strict restrictions on cash-out;



Urgent changes in the payroll: 

Relying on external services as rarely as possible;



Economic unemployment

in production,

maintenance and supporting

departments, depending on the decrease in production; 

No recruitments, including: -

No recruitments of interim workers or workers with a temporary contract

58

Source: ArcelorMittal News letter. Source: ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. Plan 2009. Unpublished PowerPoint presentation. Retrieved 15/06/2009 from ArcelorMittal Gent Intranet. 60 Source: ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. Plan 2009. Unpublished PowerPoint presentation. Retrieved 15/06/2009 from ArcelorMittal Gent Intranet. 59

36

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT -

Terminating

IBO

contracts

(IBO

stands

for

Individuele

BeroepsOpleiding and means individual professional training), with no recruitments of those involved. The IEC, for instance, was told to print the corporate magazine in black and white instead of in colour. Also, the financial report of 2008 was not printed in large numbers nor distributed to the entire works council. Instead, it was printed in black and white in a very limited edition and put on the internet; people who were really interested could ask for a printed copy. It is clear from these examples that the urge to cut costs was extremely high: even expenses that are usually negligible for a company this size are cut back severely. However, not all measures seem very well-considered. For instance, in order to save costs of renting buildings, the Flat Carbon Europe offices in Merelbeke (near Gent) will soon have to move to the administrative building of ArcelorMittal Gent, since the desks are less occupied there because of the crisis. This indeed seems beneficial, but on the other hand, costs for restoring the rented building in Merelbeke to its original state, moving costs and costs for breaching the lease contract will amount to very high levels. I therefore doubt whether the measure is truly beneficial in the long run. Moreover, in a few years, as the economy will boom again, the Flat Carbon Europe employees will have to move once again... I do not like the idea of cancelling internships as well as company visits for students, either. I think both students and teachers will gradually forget ArcelorMittal Gent as an employer in the long run. The most important measures to tackle the crisis, however, are summarised in the so-called Plan 2009. Also, the “Formule 1” project, which has been introduced before the crisis, adds to the cost-efficiency of the plant. I will briefly explain both projects. Plan 2009 The goal of Plan 2009 is to reduce personnel costs. This is to be obtained in three ways: by increasing efficiency, by raising flexibility and by outsourcing certain tasks. However, core strengths and values of ArcelorMittal Gent are preserved, such as the attention for health and safety and for the environment, the supporting services, the organisation of the departments, the integrated approach, maintenance, the social dialogue, etc61.

61

Source: ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. Plan 2009. Unpublished PowerPoint presentation. Retrieved 15/06/2009 from ArcelorMittal Gent Intranet.


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1) Increasing efficiency Plan 2009 aims to increase the efficiency of the plant: 

by optimising the organisation, thus creating more synergies between sections;



by critically examining the tasks;



and by reorganising and improving the structure of maintenance.

2) Improving flexibility Some of the product lines should be adapted to the orders. This concerns the number of shifts a day and/or the number of employees per team. In case of a temporary increase in activity, the team will be backed by temporary employees. The system of temporary unemployment, of course, also contributes to an increase in flexibility. 3) Outsourcing certain tasks Certain job responsibilities will be outsourced. ArcelorMittal Gent will only work with firms that respect safety, social rules and consultation with social partners. According to Jan Cornelis, the final aim of plan 2009 is to create more flexibility where employees are concerned. It is based on a production level of 80% of the production obtained in 2006, which was a top year. By not replacing employees who went into retirement, some 1,000 jobs will be scrapped. About 500 of these jobs will disappear forever, the other 500 vacancies will be occupied by interim people when productivity rises to 100% again. If afterwards production falls again, these people can be made redundant more easily. Formule 1 Already in January 2007, a program to improve cost-efficiency was launched: “Formule 1”. It is applied in ArcelorMittal Gent, Geel and Genk, and aims to save 175 million EUR by 2010 or 35 EUR per ton.62 In 2006, ArcelorMittal was the cost-leader as for the warm phase of all Western-European sites within the Group. However, the site showed a lag in cost-efficiency of 25 EUR per ton compared to Eastern-European sites that are active in the same market. “Formule 1” aims to reduce this lag and ensure that ArcelorMittal Gent will be the European leader in the field of costs in the future as well. A better cost-efficiency will also attract future investments to the company. “Formule 1” is in this way a leverage for the TPM system, or Total Productive 62

Source: ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. Formule 1. Retrieved 25/05/2009 from ArcelorMittal Gent Intranet.


38

Management, which was already applied and which also aims to improve the plants performances and to obtain better results. In June 2007, the preparation phase was finished. From then on, the actual project in different “waves” was launched. At every department and for each activity a pilot team was created, which is responsible for the project. This team consists of the pilot, who leads the team, and employees from different sections. It is supported by one or more employees from the “Formule 1” project team. The results of the “Formule 1” activities are regularly communicated to the employees by use of “Sidmar Berichten” and of information screens. Also, in every edition of the corporate magazine, one or more articles on “Formule 1” are printed. Although “Formule 1” was started way before the financial crisis, and has in fact nothing to do with it, it might prove very useful. Mr. Mittal has emphasised that the most cost-efficient plants or departments will be restarted first after the crisis. With a project like “Formule 1”, ArcelorMittal Gent increases its chances to be reopened soon when demand gets better again.


39

1.3 Conclusion: a SWOT-analysis of ArcelorMittal Gent The information in this final chapter is retrieved from the previous chapters as well as from an interview with Jan Cornelis, head of the internal and external communication department at ArcelorMittal Gent. He is also secretary of the CEO, Mark Vereecke, and spokesperson for the plant. As a consequence, he is very well informed about the company‟s strategy, position, challenges etc. 1.3.1.1 Strengths 

ArcelorMittal Gent is a vertically integrated company. Its activities range from producing metallurgical coke from a blend of different coking coals to making tailorwelded blanks63. This offers many advantages: -

Transportation costs within the plant are minimal;

-

The “lead time” (the time it takes for the steel to go through the entire production process) is relatively short;

-

It is possible to exchange knowledge between different departments. For instance, the galvanising lines are similar to the cold rolling mill. If a new installation needs to be build in one of the galvanising lines, employees from the cold rolling mill can transfer their knowledge.



ArcelorMittal Gent is a maritime company. It is located at the Canal Ghent-Terneuzen and it can be reached by Panamax ships with a capacity of 80,000 tons.



Belgium offers a high-quality education system. This is an invaluable asset for the company.



ArcelorMittal Gent has a very high productivity rate. In 18 years time, productivity has more than doubled, peaking in 2006 with a production of 950 tons per year per man. This is mainly due to an investment policy, which is implemented to increase the plant‟s capacity and to improve its productivity.



ArcelorMittal Gent has a very advantageous organisation model. On the one hand, there are people who are responsible for production lines (so called α-people). These are often young people who work on short projects. On the other hand, there are βpeople or people who are responsible for support. They work on longer and more

63

Source: B. De Lembre, March 2008. This is how ArcelorMittal Gent produces steel. Corporate brochure.


40

complex projects, and are often older and more experienced. The main advantage of this so-called “lean organisation” is that the responsibilities are clearly divided so that no work is done twice. There are not many hierarchical levels in the plant. As a result, communication is transferred swiftly and fluently and the “span of control”, the number of subordinates a manager has, is larger. 1.3.1.2 Weaknesses 

Although I mentioned before that ArcelorMittal Gent is a maritime company, it is actually not fully maritime. Other maritime ArcelorMittal Gent companies, such as ArcelorMittal Dunkirk, make use of larger ports that can receive ships with a capacity of over 200,000 tons (so called Capesize ships). In 2006, the Flemish and Dutch governments decided to look for possibilities to improve the logistic potential of the Canal Ghent-Terneuzen. The project organisation KGT2008 is in charge of this project.64



At the moment, the capacity of the blast furnaces is not high enough. The capacity of the steel plant is higher, and as a consequence, there is a shortage of hot metal. In 2008, it was decided that a third blast furnace will be built, however, because of the crisis, the investment has been cancelled. A third blast furnace will provide more hot metal, which will make it possible to vary the proportion of hot metal and scrap according to iron ore and scrap prices.



ArcelorMittal Gent only produces steel. This makes it entirely dependent on the demand for steel as well as on raw material prices. Jan Cornelis argues that this is a matter of strategy. He says it is not easy to focus on and excel in various markets. The Arbed Group (see chapter 1.2.2 Short history) used to be active in telecom and IT as well, but gave that up since it could not reach its full potential in all these activities. Moreover, all kinds of industries are suffering from the crisis at the moment, so diversification would not have made the company stronger.



The Flemish government very rigidly enforces strict environmental laws. This is mainly due to the high level of population density: Flanders is one of the most densely populated areas in Europe. However, Jan Cornelis considers this not only as a threat,

64

Source: KGT2008, s.d. KGT2008. Retrieved 29/05/2009 from http://www.kgt2008.nl/www/scripts/content.php?pageID=3


41

but also as an opportunity. He believes other countries will soon implement rigid laws as well. In that case, ArcelorMittal Gent will have the advantage that many environmental investments are already done: it will be a few steps ahead of other plants. Moreover, the plant now ranks high in lists of steel companies and their environmental friendliness. 1.3.1.3 Threats 

According to Jan Cornelis, the greatest threat ArcelorMittal Gent faces are the high loan costs. If the plant pays 100 EUR to an employee, the employee receives only 30 of them. The rest of the amount goes to social security. Obviously, the burden of taxation is enormous, and the situation is becoming more and more insufferable. This makes the plant weaker within the ArcelorMittal group. In the chapter about Plan 2009 (see chapter 1.2.9.2 Measures), it is explained how ArcelorMittal Gent aims to achieve more flexibility where the workforce is concerned.



Other fixed costs are also considerable. They include maintenance and Service, General and Administrative costs (SG&A‟s).



Of course, at the moment, the financial crisis is also a major threat. This has been discussed in chapter 1.2.9.The financial crisis.

1.3.1.4 Opportunities 

Although the “lead time” is already comparatively high, ArcelorMittal Gent sees opportunities to make it even shorter, so as to provide faster services to customers. At the moment, the company is working out projects to shorten the lead time.



The strict Flemish environmental laws make sure ArcelorMittal Gent can be a few steps ahead of other companies in the field of environmental investments.



If investments are made to make the Canal Ghent-Terneuzen more accessible, ArcelorMittal Gent will be able to receive more and larger ships.



The building of a third blast furnace will provide the plant with more capacity.



ArcelorMittal Gent is working on measures to make its workforce more flexible.


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2 Communicating organisational change In this chapter, I will provide an overview of what experts say about communicating organisational change, summarising what advice they give to companies. Next, I will compare this advice with what has been done in the field of communication by ArcelorMittal during and after the merger.

2.1 Theoretic background 2.1.1 Introduction: organisational change: a case of crisis communication? By way of introduction, it is interesting to make a comparison between a situation of organisational change and a crisis situation. Both are very similar. In his book on crisis communication, “Murphy was an optimist”, Peter F. Anthonissen added a chapter on organisational change, describing the case of the merger of Kredietbank, CERA bank and ABB Verzekeringen to the new KBC bank during the late 1990s. He argues why the merger is a case of crisis communication:65 “In case of an organisational restructuring, it is all about change. Change always causes feelings of threats. Change upsets people. It is a pure human reaction. Humans always react with fear and anxiety to change.” On organisational change, Edgar Eeckman, PR and communication consultant, writes the following: “To say that „the only thing we know for sure today is that nothing is for sure,” is a boutade. But that makes it not less true. […] Organisations have to adapt to ever changing influential factors continually, and thus also the people who work there. This may create new opportunities […], but also new threats […]. Changes are therefore – especially internally, but also externally – associated with many negative consequences, even though they are not always there. That is why it is of paramount importance to communicate changes professionally: for the continuing of the corporate culture, the internal motivation and the survival of the organisation itself.”66

65

Source: Anthonissen, Peter F., 2001. Murphy was een optimist. Hoe ondernemingen door crisiscommunicatie in leven bleven. Lannoo, Tielt, 223 blz. 66 Source: Edgar Eeckman, s.d. Interne communicatie bij veranderingen. De do’s en dont’s. Uit: Intern/extern, het integreren van communicatie in bedrijven, organisaties en instellingen, afl. 28. Kluwer Bedrijfswetenschappen.


43

Clearly, it is of great importance for companies to understand the need for open, quick and transparent communication in times of organisational change. We now have a look at some dos and don‟ts in communicating organisational change. 2.1.2 Dos and don’ts Peter F. Anthonissen further on mentions the following pieces of advice on communication in case of mergers: “In case of a merger, there are two groups: those in favour and those against. It is the job of the merger architects to keep the group of those against the merger as small as possible and to convince them of all the merger‟s benefits. In a merger, not only financial and economic aspects are involved, but also historical, trade union [...], and emotional [...] aspects. An essential part of preventive crisis communication in case of restructuring are an outstanding strategic plan, including communication, which is indispensable, and absolute secrecy. What‟s more: an emergency communication plan should always be made up in case the news of the restructuring becomes known before the official publication. The rule „internal communication always, without exception, comes before external‟ should be respected at all times. First, inform your own troops, than the outside world! When the restructuring is made public, there is need for an active and lasting merger communication policy, of which the merging companies remain the driving force. A merger does not come just like that. It is a process that needs to be managed dynamically and of which the key to success is called „communication‟. The quicker, the more complete and transparent communication runs, and the less chance there is of gossiping, unrest and obscurities.”67 Edgar Eeckman argues that it has been proven by Dutch professors that resistance against change is not caused by unchangeable character features, but by a lack of understanding about what is trying to be changed, why and how. He says that automatic fear for changes is a myth. He gives some advice and dos and don‟ts:

67

Source: Anthonissen, Peter F., 2002. Murphy was een optimist. Hoe ondernemingen door crisiscommunicatie in leven bleven. Lannoo, Tielt, 223 blz.


44

“First of all, it is important to consider the roles of the different levels of an organisation: 

The lowest managerial level plays a considerable role in communicating the what, who and why of the changes;



The people from the middle management are often most suspicious about changes, as they are most likely to lose their jobs;



On the work floor, people know best how to implement the changes. Therefore, a lot of attention should be devoted to bottom-up communication.”

Other pieces of advice are: 

“An analysis of the reaction of employees during previous changes may help to do estimate the response this time.



Communication should be planned at all times, and never improvised without a clear strategy;



The bigger the consequences of the change, the more clear and frequent one should communicate.



Every target group requires a different approach of communication. The message should remain the same for everyone, but for instance the means of communication or the timing may change.



Sometimes, change should not be implemented at all: for instance, when the management has already lost its credibility, or when bigger problems are on the minds of the employees already.



First, the internal target groups need to be convinced about the necessity of the change and about the major tactics for implementation. This decision has already been made, and no further discussion is possible. However, as for the practical implementation, the decision makers should be flexible and prepared to listen to their employees, who should have some say in it.



Avoid technical flaws: these rise doubts about the feasibility of the changes and about the capacity of the decision makers.



Make sure works councils and personnel representatives are involved.


45

It is interesting to create multidisciplinary teams, consisting of people from different hierarchical levels of the company. This will allow to see obstacles faster and to take them better. The meetings will take more time, but the implementation of the changes will go faster, which is important since when change is announced, the first results should be visible soon. The latter is to avoid that employees start questioning whether management is even willing to make the changes, which is of course lethal.



Communication takes time. Always consider that it takes several days for the message to reach every employee.



It is vital that the necessity for change is understood by everybody beforehand. Therefore, create a climate where changes are seen as a necessary and unavoidable solution.



The same message should be communicated repeatedly at different times and using different media. The core messages should be repeated and the various messages should overlap each other, because not every message reaches everybody.



Effective communication consists of three aspects: 1. Oral communication: those responsible for the changes should inform the employees orally and provide the possibility to ask questions. 2. Written communication: the oral communication should be confirmed by written documents, who repeat the core messages. These documents are considered more binding than oral messages. 3. Face-to-face communication: sometimes, employees prefer not to ask questions in public, but to speak to somebody who gives objective and honest answers.



Continuous communication remains necessary after the implementation of the change: for example about adaptations, developments and results, reactions of the external world, etc.”

Mr. Eeckman concludes his article by saying that the key to an accepted process of change is effective and honest communication.


46

2.1.3 Conclusion If we make a summary of the advice these authors provide on communicating organisational change, retaining only those that are relevant in the ArcelorMittal merger case, we can make up a checklist of best practices. This checklist will prove to be a useful tool for assessing the communication on the merger between Arcelor and Mittal later on: 1. Convince all employees of the benefits of the merger, mentioning financial and economic aspects as well as historical, trade union and emotional ones. 2. A strategic communication plan is indispensible, as well as an emergency plan in case things go wrong. 3. Internal communication comes before external communication. 4. Communication should be quick, complete and transparent. This helps avoiding gossiping, unrest and obscurities. 5. Every target group requires a different approach of communication. 6. Make sure works councils and personnel representatives are involved. 7. The first results of the merger should be visible shortly after the merger itself. 8. It takes time for messages to reach every employee. The same message should be communicated repeatedly at different times using different media. The core message should be repeated and the various messages should overlap each other. 9. Make sure there is a combination of oral, written and face to face communication: all have their specific advantages. 10. Continuous communication remains necessary after the implementation of the change: for example about adaptations, developments and results, reactions of the external world, etc.


47

2.2 Case study: internal communication of the merger between Arcelor and Mittal 2.2.1 Introduction: the merger ArcelorMittal is the result of a merger of equals between the companies Arcelor and Mittal in 2006. Arcelor was created in 2002 as a merger between Arbed (Luxembourg), Aceralia (Spain) and Usinor (France). Mittal Steel was founded in 2004 when LNM Holdings and ISPAT International, two sister companies, merged.68 The merger itself, however, did not run smoothly. Already in January 2006, Mittal had made an offer of 18.6 billion EUR, saying it would offer 28.21 EUR a share. Arcelor reacted defensively: it said in a statement that it “underlines the hostile nature of this move, which takes place without prior discussions or consultations between both companies.”69 Mittal was heavily criticized for his Indian origins and for the lower quality of his steel.70 The offer was made in a period of falling steel prices and a cooling demand for steel from China.71 In May that year, Arcelor announced plans to merge with the Russian company Severstal. Arcelor would own 68% of the new firm, and Severstal‟s owner, Alexey Mordashov, would get 32%, thus acting as a white knight and blocking the hostile turnover by Mittal.72 But the Arcelor board had “taken its shareholders for granted”, and they turned down the vote. Mittal, in the mean time, did not give up, and in June, he made a new proposal of 23.44 billion EUR. Meanwhile, the European Commission had given its go-ahead: the combined company would not endanger competition, it had concluded.73

68

Source: ArcelorMittal, s.d. History. Retrieved 10/05/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=15 69 Source: BBC, 27/01/2006. Mittal Steel unveils Arcelor Bid. Retrieved 02/05/2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4653516.stm 70 Source: The New York Times, 25/06/2006. Arcelor Deal With Mittal Creates New Steel Giant. Retrieved 10/05/2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/business/worldbusiness/26arcelorcnd.html?_r=1&sq=arcelor%20mittal %20merger&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=print 71 Source: Ibid. 72 Source: BBC, 26/03/2008. Arcelor to merge with Severstal. Retrieved 02/05/2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5018682.stm 73 Source: BBC, 02/05/2006. EU OK’s Mittal’s bid for Arcelor. Retrieved 02/05/2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/5042244.stm


48

On the 12th of June, it was announced that the Arcelor Board had turned down the offer, and that Mittal would not improve his conditions, which were, according to him, already very attractive. Eventually, on June 25, Arcelor agreed to the merger with Mittal, who had proposed a deal of 26.8 billion EUR, offering shares of 40.37 EUR for each Arcelor share: almost twice the amount proposed in January.74 The Arcelor-Mittal merger was a great challenge: two entirely different corporate cultures had to be blended into one single identity, creating one of the world‟s largest companies. To help ease the integration process, a new ArcelorMittal brand was launched in June 2007, along with a new single identity and a set of values and goals. 2.2.2 Main challenges The merger was very challenging, in the first place due to considerable differences in corporate culture between both parties.75 For instance, Mittal Steel was a very slim company, with short decision making processes. Arcelor, on the other hand, was slower, but more accurate. The production processes were also quite different. Arcelor plants were, on the whole, modern, safe and with a focus on quality. Mittal steel plants, however, were mainly old, especially those in Eastern Europe. It takes time to make sure the quality of all plants is on the same level. To make matters worse, these differences had been emphasized during the difficult merger process. Contrary to what one may expect, the integration process ran rather smoothly. This is largely due to a favourable geographical spread: Arcelor owned plants in South-America and Western Europe, while Mittal Steel was mainly active in Northern America and Eastern Europe. Therefore, no employees had to be laid off. Another advantage was that both Arcelor and Mittal Steel already had been through many mergers and acquisitions, and therefore were quite experienced.

74

Source: The New York Times, 25/06/2006. Arcelor Deal With Mittal Creates New Steel Giant. Retrieved 10/05/2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/business/worldbusiness/26arcelorcnd.html?_r=1&sq=arcelor%20mittal %20merger&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=print 75 Source: email from Dieter Vandenhende, manager communications at Flat Carbon Europe.


49

2.2.3 ArcelorMittal: a new brand 2.2.3.1 Brand identity As has been mentioned in chapter 1.1.3 Mission, Values and Code of Conduct, the brand promise of ArcelorMittal is „Transforming Tomorrow‟, and the three core values are leadership, quality and sustainability. The branding was mainly done by FutureBrand, a London based global branding firm.76 The main elements of ArcelorMittal‟s new brand identity are its new logo, lay-out and typeface. The logo of ArcelorMittal consists of two parts: the ArcelorMittal word mark in a very dark grey (not in black); and the orange ArcelorMittal logo, called “the signature”. According to Ian Louden, leader of the FutureBrand Consultancy Team, “the signature symbolizes the transformational energy that characterizes ArcelorMittal. Its dynamic and iconic form reflects ArcelorMittal‟s leadership position in the steel industry.”77 ArcelorMittal also consistently uses the same “shape”: a framing device with a curved notch on the left hand side to help organize texts and brochures, and a curved right hand corner. The typeface used on every application is VAG Rounded and Foundry Sterling.

The ArcelorMittal website: examples of all brand elements 76

Source: ArcelorMittal, 21/05/2008. Ian Louden – Brand elements. Retrieved 30/06/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.tv/2008/05/21/ian-louden-future-brand/ 77 Source: s.a., s.d. ArcelorMittal-elements. Retrieved 14/05/2009 from http://dotsub.com/view/cffe7553-75854cd5-ad80-38542493f36f


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2.2.3.2 Implementing the brand On a website, www.arcelormittalbrandid.com, the Group published all its instructions about the visual brand identity. At every plant, these new brand elements had to be implemented in a specific order.78 First of all, the brand had to be visible on every printed appliance: envelopes, business cards, letter heads and badges for employees. Then, the newspaper magazine had to be adapted. At Arcelor Mittal Gent, the difference between the old lay-out and the new one was substantial. However, the plant was allowed to keep the name “Sidmar Nieuws” and its own preferences for size, contents of the articles etc. It was not until January 2009 that the new template for the internal magazine was introduced. At that point, the name of the newspaper was changed to “1” and the picture on the front page, the number of pages, the articles on the first two pages and the last page were fixed.

Sidmar Nieuws before the branding

Sidmar Nieuws after the branding

Cover of “1”

Next, electronic documents had to be adapted: letters as well as templates for faxes, reports, notes and presentations. Screensavers and wallpapers also changed. Moreover, there had to be a new signalisation: the new logo had to be visible everywhere in the plant. New china and cutlery needed to be made for the restaurant, PIN‟s with the ArcelorMittal curl on them had to be distributed, the working clothes had to be relabelled and the packaging material had to be adapted. The website of ArcelorMittal Gent for instance, formerly called www.sidmar.be, had to be revamped, its URL having changed into www.arcelormittal.com/gent.

78

This information is obtained from an interview with Barbara De Lembre.

51


Students visiting the company and new employees also received information on the company and a brand presentation. The brand had to be communicated to stakeholders and decision makers as well. In the case of ArcelorMittal Ghent, these are for example Ghent city council and principals of the surrounding schools. The Group had also imposed to organize a “Brand Event”. At the communication department of ArcelorMittal Gent, however, this was met with some scepticism: an event like this was thought to be a bit “American” and maybe employees wouldn‟t be all to enthusiastic about it. Therefore, they decided to integrate this event with the yearly event “Open Company Day”, during which the company is open for public. In 2007, the Open Company Day was organized around the brand: the brand logo was projected on screens, the introductory speech was about the new brand, the Brand DVD was shown, children got a free pen or balloon with the logo on it, a press release was written about the brand, etc. During a “brand rollout”, the communication departments had to present all the efforts that were being made to the group. 2.2.3.3 Communicating the brand Shortly after the merger, an advertising campaign was launched: “Boldness Changes Everything”, answering the following questions: “At ArcelorMittal, what do all 320,000 employees stand for? What do we believe in and how does that make us different?”79

80

Example of an advertisement from the “Boldness Changes Everything” campaign.

79

Source : ArcelorMittal, s.d. Boldness Changes Everything. The Advertising Campaign. Retrieved 14/05/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.tv/season1/blog/2007/06/boldness_changes_everything_th.html 80 Source : ArcelorMittal, s.d. Boldness Changes Everything. The Advertising Campaign. Retrieved 14/05/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.tv/season1/blog/2007/06/boldness_changes_everything_th.html


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“The creation of ArcelorMittal was a bold step, but one which will be an important part of transforming the future of the steel industry," said Nicola Davidson, Vice President of Corporate Communications, in an interview. "We believe that boldness is an important part of the spirit of ArcelorMittal and is one of the qualities which differentiate us from our peers. Bold moves have brought positive change to the world around us for many centuries. Our advertising campaign is a celebration of how such moves can really help transform the world."81 Other means that were used to communicate the new brand, both internally and externally, include:82 

The website, www.arcelormittal.com;



Press conferences;



“Investor days”;



Advertisements in the largest newspapers (e.g. The Times, Le Monde...);



Two large costumer events in Luxembourg and Paris where the new brand was presented;



Local customer events where the brand was presented to local stakeholders all over the world;



The sales networks;



Costumer magazines, see for instance http://www.arcelormittal.com/fce//prg/selfware.pl?id_sitemap=241.

2.3 Internal communication by the Group To soften the pains and uncertainties for the employees, ArcelorMittal launched a website, www.arcelormittal.tv, entitled: “Creating History. Documenting the Creation of One of the Greatest Companies in the World.” At regular intervals, a new “episode” appeared: a video containing interviews with both members of the management board and employees all over the world. Each episode is dedicated to a specific region. Moreover, the website contains a blog, making it possible for every single employee to comment on the merger, and a section called “Talk with the CEO”, where employees can ask questions directly to the CEO, Lakshmi Mittal. Nicola Davidson, vice-president communication at Arcelor Mittal, comments: 81

Source: El Economista, 04/06/2007. Arcelor Mittal Launches Its New Global Brand- TRANSFORMING TOMORROW. Retrieved 14/05/2009 from http://www.eleconomista.es/empresasfinanzas/noticias/223388/06/07/ArcelorMittal-Launches-Its-New-Global-Brand-TRANSFORMINGTOMORROW.html 82 Source: email from Dieter Vandenhende, manager communications at Flat Carbon Europe.


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“The programme for the website [...] will give detailed information on all aspects of the integration, especially the launch of the new brand. Communication plays a very important role in the integration process and the website has been conceived to give staff members a platform to voice their opinions, to comment and to share their experiences with colleagues, in the framework of the whole group.”83 For this campaign, ArcelorMittal made use of the advice of Vanksen, a communications group. In March 2008, season 2 was launched to “to give precedence to the group‟s values, Sustainable Development, Quality and Leadership.”84 Other means of internal communication of the brand included: 

The Intranet;



A brand identity website: www.arcelormittalbrandid.com;



A network of so called „brand champions‟, who were responsible for implementing the brand locally;



Regular internal newsletters;



Corporate magazines.

2.4 Internal communication at ArcelorMittal Gent Communication on the merger to employees has been spread via the following media: 

Articles in Sidmar Nieuws;



“Sidmar Berichten”;



Messages on the information screens;



Publication of all relevant newspaper articles on the intranet;



News letters from the Group.

I will now discuss the contents each of these means of communication in particular.

83

Source: Vanksenculturebuzz, s.d. ARCELORMITTAL LAUNCHES 2ND SEASON OF WEB TV. New 2.0 initiative for the steel giant. Retrieved 06/06/2009 from http://www.culture-buzz.com/clients/ArcelorMittal-Launches-2ndSeason-of-Web-TV-1711.html 84 Source: Vanksenculturebuzz, s.d. ARCELORMITTAL LAUNCHES 2ND SEASON OF WEB TV. New 2.0 initiative for the steel giant. Retrieved 06/06/2009 from http://www.culture-buzz.com/clients/ArcelorMittal-Launches-2ndSeason-of-Web-TV-1711.html

54

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT 2.4.1 Sidmar Nieuws/”1” This table gives an overview of the articles about the merger in Sidmar Nieuws, which you can read in the annexes, chapter 1: Nr.

Month

Title

# pages

October 2006

Historical visit Mittal on October 17th

2

Arcelor Mittal, the unquestionable

2

Comments

1

leader in steel 2

February 2007

Editorial

0.5

3

June 2007

A new style for ArcelorMittal Gent

2

4

February 2008

ArcelorMittal Gent? Right, Sidmar!

0.5

Special edition

Special edition

It is clear that the corporate magazine was not considered the best medium to communicate the changes: only 4 articles have been written about the merger, two of which are actually not meant for employees, but rather for the people living in the neighbourhood. The topics are not very heavy or important either, and the articles do not explain any of the structural changes in detail. One exception is the article “Arcelor Mittal, the unquestionable leader in steel”, which includes information on: -

The backgrounds of Arcelor and Mittal Steel;

-

Profile of the new Arcelor Mittal Group;

-

Values of the Group;

-

The integration process;

-

The Arcelor Mittal General Management Board.

The article also contains a list of the members of the Management Committee, as well as two graphs about the production. The fact that so few articles have been written, is not surprising, since Sidmar Nieuws appears only once a month and is therefore way too slow to communicate these changes efficiently. Moreover, there are no editions in July and August, so the first Sidmar Nieuws appeared only in September: months after the merger was completed. It is clearly not the aim of the corporate magazine to communicate important changes: the aim is to bring light and warm stories about employees or departments at the company.

55

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT 2.4.2 “Sidmar Berichten”

“Sidmar Berichten”, on the other hand, is a far more interesting and convenient tool to spread this kind of news. This is an overview of the “Sidmar Berichten” on the merger:

Nr.

Date

Title

# words

June 26th, 2006

Message from the president of the Board of Directors

603

1

of Arcelor to all employees Summary of press release merger propostion

522

Arcelor-Mittal 2

3

4

August 3rd,

Message from Joseph Kinsch to all Arcelor

213

2006

Employees

August 4th,

Message from Joseph Kinsch to all Group

2006

employees

September 19th,

Management structure Arcelor Mittal

410

AESOPE 2006: state of affairs

389

Mittal meets Arcelor Gent

389

Changes in management structure Arcelor Mittal

179

November 20th,

AESOPE 2006 – Plan for shareholdership of

275

2006

employees

406

2006

5

October 18th, 2006

6

November 6th, 2006

7

State of affairs about the right to sell 8

January 23th,

Policy Statement 2007

49

Message from ArcelorMittal about the new look-and-

253

2007 9

May 30th, 2007

feel 10

s.d.

Change of address and registered office

142

11

s.d.

Management reshuffle at ArcelorMittal Gent

387

Obviously, much more information about the merger has been spread using “Sidmar Berichten”. 11 messages have been printed and distributed about the subject, and almost all of them were lengthy and detailed. You can read them in the annexes, chapter 2.

56

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT 2.4.3 Information screens Twice, information on the merger was spread via information screens:

Nr.

Date

Subject

# of slides

Week 32: 7-13/08/2006

Message from Joseph Kinsch to all Group

7

1.

employees

2.

Week 43: 23-29/10/2006

Pictures of Mr. Mittal‟s visit to the plant

5

This, again, seems very limited. The fact that only two messages on the merger appeared via the information screens can be explained by the nature of information screens as a means of communication: it is difficult to post entire texts on them, and even then, people looking at them are not likely to read these texts in a focused way.

2.5 Evaluation I will now compare the efforts made by ArcelorMittal and ArcelorMittal Gent to communicate the merger to the advice given by experts. To this purpose, I will make use of the checklist of best practices I have listed in chapter 2.1.3 Conclusion. 1. Convince all employees of the benefits of the merger, mentioning financial and economic aspects as well as historical, trade union and emotional ones. This aspect of communicating organisational change belongs to the nine month period before the merger. Unfortunately, the communication by Arcelor and Mittal Steel was very intense and is extremely difficult to reconstruct. Therefore, I am unable to comment on this aspect of the communication. 2. A strategic communication plan is indispensible, as well as an emergency plan in case things go wrong. The general communication plan has been provided by the Group and strictly enforced to all sites. 3. Internal communication comes before external communication. This condition has clearly not been met. In a company the size of ArcelorMittal, with some 326,000 employees all over the world, it is practically impossible to keep the news on the merger inside both companies. Mr. Mittal‟s offers were spread to the world through mass


57

media from the very beginning, which made it useless to try and keep the plans for the merger quiet to the world. 4. Communication should be quick, complete and transparent. This helps avoiding gossiping, unrest and obscurities. On Group level, the intranet and the newsletters provide quick and complete information. At ArcelorMittal gent, the information screens and “Sidmar Berichten” are both quick means to communicate the merger. 5. Every target group requires a different approach of communication. The use of web TV as the major communication tool by the Group is there for every kind of employee: both blue and white collar workers. In Gent, this condition clearly has not been met either: Sidmar Nieuws, “Sidmar Berichten” and the information screens are all meant for every employee, whether he or she is a blue collar workers, white collar workers or manager. 6. Make sure works councils and personnel representatives are involved. ArcelorMittal Gent has strong relations with the social partners, as is clear from the cooperation with the works council during the financial crisis. As for the merger, I have not found any evidence of communication with works councils, but since the decision had been made on a global level and since no personnel needed to be laid off, communication with trade unions might not be required here. 7. The first results of the merger should be visible shortly after the merger itself. For the employees at ArcelorMittal Gent, nothing essential really changed. The new brand has been the first visible element of the merger, which was launched on June 1st 2007, about a year after the merger. 8. It takes time for messages to reach every employee. The same message should be communicated repeatedly at different times using different media. The core message should be repeated and the various messages should overlap each other. This condition has been met, both on a local and on a global level. In Gent, the letter of Joseph Kinsch to all employees of the Group of August 4th, for instance, has been spread by “Sidmar Berichten” as well as by the information screens.

58


9. Make sure there is a combination of oral, written and face to face communication: all have their specific advantages. The website www.arcelormittal.tv provides videos on the merger, a blog and a section where employees can talk directly to their new CEO. Since real face to face communication with the CEO is impossible in such a large company, I think the site is a great tool to replace it. I have been unable to find evidence of oral communication and face to face communication on a local level. This might be connected to the fact that this merger was just one of the many mergers the plant had been through during the past few decades, and the fact that no employees will be laid off because of the merger. I should also add that employees can always talk to their LCC‟s as a link between them and the Board of Directors. 10. Continuous communication remains necessary after the implementation of the change: for example about adaptations, developments and results, reactions of the external world, etc. Continuous communication has been provided by the Group through web TV: regularly, new videos have been published on the different aspects on the merger and on the first reactions and results. In addition, the communication continues even today: recently, a second season has been launched, which “takes a personal, more human approach where the viewer is invited to share moments of the lives of the men and women that are the very essence of ArcelorMittal.”85 One video, for instance provides a summary of what happened since the launch

of

the

new

brand

and

its

reputation

nowadays:

see

http://www.arcelormittal.tv/secretingredient. On a local level, communication on the merger has ceased to be spread since June 2008, when the last articles on the merger had been published via “Sidmar Berichten”.

2.6 Conclusion I think we may conclude that sufficient communication on the merger has been spread to all employees. At ArcelorMittal Gent, the communication seems rather limited at first sight, although all information was passed on in due time and via adequate channels. However, there are two important circumstances to be considered here: firstly, the fact that the merger and the 85

Source: ArcelorMittal, s.d. Inside Transforming Tomorrow. Retrieved 06/07/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.tv/about


59

subsequent name change was by far not the first in the history of Sidmar, and secondly, the fact that no jobs were at stake because of the merger. These two conditions might have caused a certain lack of interest among employees. On Group level, internal communication on such a large scale is quite a challenge. I think web TV has offered an ideal solution for this problem: it has been able to serve as a platform for both top-down and bottom-up communication, as well as a means to communicate and promote the new brand and its values to the outside world. It is something other companies can learn from.


60

3 My internship at the department of internal and external communications This chapter elaborates on the tasks I was accorded during my internship. I will discuss each of them in the same approach, giving a general background of the task first, after which I will write down the briefing I received for this particular task. Next, I will give some examples about the way I handled it and eventually, I will evaluate the task.

3.1 Revising and updating the website 3.1.1 Background The ArcelorMittal Gent website is very extended. It is in the first place a means of external communication and especially of attracting new employees to the company. Since it is very large, it might be used as an encyclopaedia on the activities of the steel company. The different chapters of the website are: 

Company profile: an overview of the company‟s management, values, history etc.;



Strong profiles: this is an extended overview of ArcelorMittal Gent‟s departments and the activities and projects at each department. Also, testimonials of “people in this department” are to be found everywhere.;



High tech: a mainly technical chapter on the company‟s progresses in R&D;



Safe & Healthy: a chapter on what is done to ensure the employees‟ health and safety;



Environment: an overview of ArcelorMittal Gent‟s activities to reduce pollution;



Value creation: explanation of its TPM (total productive management);



Applications: a section about the use of ArcelorMittal Steel in different industries;



Production process: this part of the website contains a link to a video concerning the production process of steel at the plant.

3.1.2 Briefing Davy Van Swael, who is in charge of the website, gave me the assignment of reviewing and updating some texts for the website. He informed me that the texts from the website are often very technical, and that the challenge is to write them so that professional people


61

(engineers etc.) can learn from them, but also so that other people understand what they are about. This part of my internship consisted of two phases. First, badly-written texts had to be revised. Then, old and outdated texts had to be completely updated and rewritten, based on new information obtained via interviews with the people concerned. 1. Revising existing texts The first phase of the “updating-process” was to review existing texts. These were mainly to be found on the “strong profiles”-section on the website, and therefore often very technical. The texts were written by different people, which caused them to be inconsistent and often badly written. When revising the texts, I was asked to pay particular attention to: 

The viewpoint the texts were written from. In the current version of the website, “we” sometimes referred to a particular department or section of a department, and sometimes to ArcelorMittal Gent as a whole. Davy said “we” should only be used if the company as a whole is meant, not when it is about a particular part of it.



Sometimes, English constructions were used, for instance “Het ArcelorMittal Gentmanagement”. These constructions had to be removed and adapted, in this case to “Het management van ArcelorMittal Gent”.



The names of the departments are sometimes written with capital letters, sometimes not. All names of departments should be written with small letters.



Sometimes, very technical abbreviations were used without any explanation. I had to write these abbreviations in full and give additional information where necessary.



The website was written several years ago and is outdated. Therefore, certain figures used in the texts are no longer correct, for instance “3% of the company‟s profits go to research and development”. Especially during the current crisis, many things have changed. These figures had to be either removed or adapted to the current situation.



In general, some texts were badly written as well. I had to improve the style and make the texts more fluent.

2. Adding new content and updating old content Most of the texts dated back to 2004-2005, so any changes or new projects that have been started afterward, were missing. I was given a list of the texts concerned, which also contained the names of the people responsible for the particular department or section the


62

text was about. I had to contact these people and set a date for an interview. Then I had to take the interview. Afterwards I wrote the texts based on the information I had obtained during the interviews. These texts were not at all easy to write because of the highly technical contents. 3.1.3 Examples 1. Revising existing texts An extended example of the text revision process can be found in the annexes, chapter 4.1.1 Revising existing texts. 2. Adding new content and updating outdated content An example of a new technical text can be found in the annexes, chapter 4.1.2 Writing new texts. 3.1.4 Evaluation When revising texts during the first few weeks of my internship, I encountered many difficulties, since I did not know anything about steel making and I was not familiar with the writing style at ArcelorMittal Gent. Gradually, however, I got used to it and by the end of my internship, I made fewer mistakes. In hindsight, I think adding new content to the website was the most challenging part of my internship. The new texts required a lot of concentration. First, I had to make sure I understood the complicated information obtained during an interview correctly, and then I had to compare my notes with other information, such as PowerPoint presentations or intranet texts. Next, I tried to find a way to structure the text logically, and finally, I wrote out the information in an accessible yet interesting style. The most difficult aspect was to find a good structure, once this had been found, the rest was easier.

3.2 Writing and translating texts for “1” 3.2.1 Background You can find more information on the corporate magazine in chapter 1.2.8.3 The corporate magazine. However, I would like to add some information about some categories of articles that return every edition. These include: 

Editorial: during the last few months, the editorial has been an interview with the Board members on the crisis


63

“Out of sight, out of mind?”: articles about people who left ArcelorMittal a couple of years ago but who are still remembered by their fellow workers



Member of the Group…: a few words about important people from other ArcelorMittal plants all over the world



WinWinWin: a small contest for attentive readers



What’s that? (Waddisda?): some explanation about machines or vehicles you do not encounter every day



Sidmar in short: very short articles about for instance company visits or small events such as a Christmas lunch.



Personalia: births, marriages and deaths



Articles about TPM



Articles about Formule 1

3.2.2 Briefing a. Taking interviews Barbara De Lembre and Davy Van Swael did not give me instructions on how to do the interviews. They did, however, take me with them to their interviews first, to show me how they did it. I noticed that most of the interviews were about a new installation or system that had been implemented in the factory. These interviews were all structured in a similar way: -

What is the innovation about?

-

Why was it necessary?

-

How was it implemented?

-

What was it like before the innovation?

-

What is it like now?

-

Is there still room for improvement?

Other interviews were about human interest. The questions for these interviews depended on the subject and did not have a clear structure. Most of the time, it was not very clear what the interview would be about beforehand. This made it difficult to prepare questions. b. Writing out interviews


64

Some of the interviews had to be written in the form of an interview, alternating questions with answers. Others had to be rewritten completely into full text. The photographer provided pictures for each interview: these were then added to the text and I had to provide them with a caption. I was advised to write the texts very fluently and in a personal tone of voice. As for interviews that had to be written in the form of an interview rather than in full text, Davy Van Swael gave me the following advice: you should listen to what the interviewee means to say, not to what he literally says. If you do that, you can paraphrase without mistakenly putting words into somebody‟s mouth. When the texts were finished, I had to send them to the interviewees for approval. c. Translating texts from the group As has been mentioned before, the texts on the first two pages and on the last page of “1” were provided by the Group. I had to translate some of these texts into Dutch. d. Rewriting articles from other departments Some articles were given to us from other departments and had to be rewritten. For instance, I have revised two articles on health coming from the health department: these belonged to a series of articles concerning healthy food. For the editions of May and June, I reviewed the texts to make them more fluent and accessible. e. Other 

By taking part in a monthly contest, “1”-readers could win cinema tickets. They had to answer questions about the articles and eventually find a word with these answers. I had to think of some questions for the edition of May.



On the second day of my internship, the health-and-safety day was organized. I was asked to join Jeroen Opde Beeck, the photographer, on his trip amongst the activities organized throughout the plant. I asked questions to the organizers and participants of these activities and afterwards, I used the answers I got to write a reportage on the event. Since health and safety are of key importance within the ArcelorMittal Group, and since the article concerned the plant as a whole, it was considered the main


65

article of the May-edition of “1” and thus referred to on the front page, of which I was quite proud. 3.2.3 Examples Examples of articles written for “1” can be found in the annexes, chapter 4.2 Articles for “1”. 3.2.4 Evaluation Taking interviews and (re)writing texts for the corporate magazine was the part of the internship I liked best, since I could make use of my revision and writing skills. At first, I was afraid to take interviews, since I had no experience with them at all, and I feared that the interviewees would be very silent and unwilling to answer my questions. However, after a while I learned that most interviewees were very eager to talk a lot about their achievements or hobbies, especially when I showed sincere interest in their stories. Writing the interviews was also something I very much liked, since it is an opportunity to be creative with language. It is very satisfactory that shortly afterwards, the result of my work was visible and my texts appeared in “1”.

3.3 Press overview 3.3.1 Background As a medium for internal communication, every morning the communication department has to search through the day‟s newspapers and write down any articles about: 

The ArcelorMittal Group



ArcelorMittal Gent



Other companies in the Ghent port



Other steel companies



The automotive industry (ArcelorMittal‟s most important customers)



Articles about the political discussion of temporary unemployment for employees

These articles are then sent to the printing office, where they are scanned and put onto the intranet, so that any ArcelorMittal employee can access them. Moreover, articles concerning ArcelorMittal in particular have to be summarised in English. Before 11 o‟clock in the morning, they have to be sent to the main office in Luxembourg.


66

In case very important articles are printed, for instance about a strike or about a statement of Mr. Mittal about the crisis, they have to be translated entirely. The following newspapers are looked through: 

De Standaard



De Morgen



Het Nieuwsblad



De Gentenaar



Het Belang van Limburg



De Tijd



Financial Times



L‟Echo



Le Soir



La Libre Belgique

3.3.2 Briefing I was asked to look through the newspapers and to indicate all pages where one of the subjects mentioned above was discussed. If articles about ArcelorMittal appeared, I had to put them on top of the pile so that the people from the printing office would scan them in first. These particular articles were then copied and handed to me, and I had to translate or briefly summarise them. Then I had to send them to Jan Cornelis, who, in turn, sent them to the main office in Luxembourg. 3.3.3 Example Examples of a summary and a translation of a press article can be found in the annexes, chapter 4.3 Press overview. 3.3.4 Evaluation On the whole, I did not experience much difficulty while translating and summarising these texts, as I am well prepared for these tasks thanks to my background of translating and interpreting. Nevertheless, some texts were challenging, especially when they concerned the Flemish or Belgian laws on labour and the measures taken by ArcelorMittal Gent to cope with the crisis. On the whole, I think I succeeded in offering a solid translation in time.


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4 General evaluation In this final chapter, I will discuss the value of my internship as a part of the master of multilingual communication. I will comment on what this internship taught me, first on a professional level, then on a social level. Finally, I will link this internship with MTB, saying what MTB-knowledge I used for this internship, and suggesting other programmes for MTB which may have been interesting to know before doing the internship.

4.1 Professional skills On the whole, I think this internship has been very successful and instructive. First of all, I learned a lot about corporate life. I learned how a company is organised and what employees do every day. What‟s more, ArcelorMittal Gent is not just a company, it is part of the world‟s largest steel company with some 5,000 employees and the size of a small town. I found it very interesting to learn what hierarchic levels there are, which departments there are and how they communicate with each other. I also learned how a communication department works and what the day-to-day tasks are. I was also able to observe closely how a large company reacts to a crisis, what measures are taken, how they are implemented, and, most interesting of all, how they are communicated. Secondly, I finally got a chance to do what I was taught at the Ghent University College and at Ghent University: translating, revising, summarising and writing texts, in English as well as in Dutch. Some of these texts were quite challenging, mainly due to the very specific vocabulary of a completely integrated steel producing plant. Most of that vocabulary could not be found in ordinary dictionaries, and even dictionaries on steel-related vocabulary did not always do the trick. For instance, “warmwals” can be translated by “hot rolling mill” or by “hot strip mill”, but I had to make sure I used the word that is most common at the plant, namely “hot strip mill”. To find that out, I could compare the brochure “This is how ArcelorMittal Gent produces steel” with its Dutch counterpart. This way, I have been able to enrich my vocabulary. Not only did I learn a lot of steel-related words, I also had to write texts about the financial results or about negotiations with the trade unions. Some of the vocabulary are so-called “realia”: words that only exist in a particular country. Examples are words connected to the system of economic unemployment, which is


68

unique in Belgium. Sometimes, I had to make sure I used the vocabulary that is normally used, for instance, the Group demands that you always write “Lakshmi Mittal, voorzitter en CEO van de groep”. Taking and writing out interviews was something I had not learned at the university. Therefore, I was rather insecure when I set off to do interviews on my own: I was afraid that I would forget to ask important questions, that the interviewee would give only very short answers or that I would not be able to write everything down. However, my fear proved to be unnecessary: all interviews went very well, and most employees were eager to talk a lot and even proud to have the chance to appear in the corporate magazine. Writing out these interviews in the right „tone of voice‟ was also a challenge. The texts had to be fluent, clear and accessible, not too long and not too short. Especially the more technical texts were difficult to write, as opposed to the human interest interviews. I also improved my skills in planning: I had to call the interviewees myself and arrange interviews with them. Sometimes, it was difficult to find a moment both parties were available, especially since employees had to stay home often because of the crisis. The internship had another unexpected asset: I have been able to talk French for about 50% of the time. My colleague trainee, Hélène, was French: she lives in Dunkirk, France, and was sent from ArcelorMittal Dunkirk to ArcelorMittal Gent to improve her Dutch and to make translations of brochures. As I carpooled to work together with her (her home in Ghent was not far from mine), we often talked French in the car, and on the work floor, conversations were also in French most of the time. Now, I feel my French has much improved and I am more at ease in conversations. Furthermore, I was very lucky to be able to attend a training on crisis communication. The training was actually meant for heads of departments, but my colleague trainee, Hélène, and I were allowed to attend as well. We have seen how one should act as a spokesperson, what to say and what not to say and how to behave in front of a camera.

4.2 Social skills The atmosphere at the communication department was always very cheerful and humoristic. I was at ease there from day one. There was a lot of work, but I had the impression that there was not much stress.


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Working at the communication department allows one to learn a lot about other departments, meet many people and see the whole plant. I was happy that I did not have to sit behind a computer and write translations every day, but was able to go to other parts of the plant now and then. On many occasions, I got to see different stages of the production process, many of which were even quite spectacular. For more than two months, I have worked almost every day from 8 am until 5 pm. I had to get up every morning at about 6.15h, and was home every evening at 18h, after which I started working on this thesis or studying my exams. At first, this was quite tough, as I was not used to getting up early. But after one week, I got used to it. I can imagine that working is not that bad, at least if you come home in the evening and have nothing to do anymore. I went to work either by bus or carpooling with Hélène, my colleague trainee. The bus times were not ideal, but it was a chance to talk to other employees from other departments and to overhear conversations about what was going on at the work floor.

4.3 My internship within MTB To be completely honest, I think the tasks I did during my internship were more connected to my training as a translator-interpreter than to the MTB programme. It was at Hogeschool Gent that I learned how to write fluently in both English and Dutch. Still, without MTB, my internship would have gone far less smoothly for several reasons: 

The MTB programme has given me the background necessary to understand the importance of my work, and to put everything that was going on at the plant into the right perspective. One might safely state that everything I did and saw at ArcelorMittal Gent was somehow a practical case of what I was taught during the lectures: internal communication, crisis communication, corporate social responsibility...



Also, contrary to what I had expected, the courses on accountancy and corporate law proved useful, as I have been regularly confronted with accounting and law-related terms while doing translations.



And of course, the economic terms we studied in English Major have been of great use.

In other words, the MTB programme has helped me to understand and integrate in corporate life more easily.


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It is difficult to say whether any additional courses within MTB would have helped me to cope with my internship in an even better way. Of course, I did not know anything about steel production: the process and terminology were completely new to me and it took some time to gain insight in the production process. However, it would be quite useless to add courses on steel production in the MTB programme. Yet, there are some other aspects that might be added to the programme: 

I would suggest organizing more guest lectures on internal communication: the number of lectures on internal communication was quite low compared to, for example, those on advertising;



During the classes on corporate law, more attention could go to the relations of companies with trade unions.

In a final paragraph, however, I would like to point out that I think my year at MTB has been very interesting. Not only did I learn a lot, I also acquired skills in team work and I now feel, especially after this internship, ready for the labour market.


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5 Bibliography 5.1 On ArcelorMittal and ArcelorMittal Gent 5.1.1 Websites 

ArcelorMittal: www.arcelormittal.com



ArcelorMittal Gent: www.arcelormittal.com/gent



ArcelorMittal Flat Carbon Europe: www.arcelormittal.com/fce



Web TV: www.arcelormittal.tv



Branding site: www.arcelormittalbrandid.com (employee log in required)



ArcelorMittal Gent Intranet (employee log in required)

5.1.2 Corporate Brochures 

Fact Book: ArcelorMittal, June 2008. Bold Future 2007 (Fact Book). Retrieved from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=647



Annual review 2008: ArcelorMittal Gent, 2009. Annual Review 2008. Retrieved from http://www.arcelormittal.com/gent/repository/Publicaties/SidmarjaarverslagNL.pdf



Production brochure: B. De Lembre, March 2008. This is how ArcelorMittal Gent produces steel. Retrieved from http://www.arcelormittal.com/gent/repository/Publicaties/ZomaaktArcelorGentstaal.pdf

5.1.3 PowerPoint presentations 

General presentation of ArcelorMittal Gent for visitors: ArcelorMittal, s.d. ArcelorMittal Gent. PowerPoint presentation. Retrieved from ArcelorMittal Gent Intranet.



Plan 2009: ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. Plan 2009. PowerPoint presentation. Retrieved from ArcelorMittal Gent Intranet.

5.1.4 People 

Jan Cornelis, head of the internal and external communication department;



Barbara De Lembre, communication manager at the IEC;



Dieter Vandenhende, communication manager at ArcelorMittal Flat Carbon Europe.


72

5.2 Newspaper Articles 5.2.1 On the financial crisis 

De Standaard, 12/12/2009. ArcelorMittal schrapt 650 voltijdse banen. Retrieved 21/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF12122008_041&kanaalid= 15



De Standaard, 22/10/2008. Twee dagen per week werkloosheid bij ArcelorMittal. Retrieved 21/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=RK221K74_2&word=ArcelorMitt al



De Standaard, 07/11/2008. Investerings-stop Arcelor treft 180 jobs. Retrieved 21/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=OJ22LI4K&word=ArcelorMittal



De Standaard, 08/02/2009. 800 banen weg bij Arcelor in België. Retrieved 21/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF08122008_041&word=Arc elorMittal



De Standaard, 22/01/2009. Heropstart hoogoven 6 in Seraing uitgesteld. Retrieved 22/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF22012009_113&kanaalid= 15



De Standaard, 08/04/2009. Ook in Gent gaat hoogoven tijdelijk dicht. Retrieved 22/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF20090408_032&word=Arc elorMittal



De Standaard, 09/04/2009. ArcelorMittal legt productie stil in mei. Retrieved 22/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=R828QRJ9&word=ArcelorMittal

5.2.2 On the merger 

ArcelorMittal, s.d. History. Retrieved 10/05/2009 from http://www.arcelormittal.com/index.php?lang=en&page=15



BBC, 27/01/2006. Mittal Steel unveils Arcelor Bid. Retrieved 02/05/2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4653516.stm


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The New York Times, 25/06/2006. Arcelor Deal With Mittal Creates New Steel Giant. Retrieved 10/05/2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/business/worldbusiness/26arcelorcnd.html?_r=1 &sq=arcelor%20mittal%20merger&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=print



BBC, 26/03/2008. Arcelor to merge with Severstal. Retrieved 02/05/2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5018682.stm



BBC, 02/05/2006. EU OK‟s Mittal‟s bid for Arcelor. Retrieved 02/05/2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/5042244.stm

5.3 On communicating organisational change 

Anthonissen, Peter F., 2001. Murphy was een optimist. Hoe ondernemingen door crisiscommunicatie in leven bleven. Lannoo, Tielt, 223 blz.



Edgar Eeckman, s.d. Interne communicatie bij veranderingen. De do‟s en dont‟s. Uit: Intern/extern, het integreren van communicatie in bedrijven, organisaties en instellingen, afl. 28. Kluwer Bedrijfswetenschappen.

5.4 On branding  

www.arcelormittal.tv; www.arcelormittalbrandid.com s.a., s.d. ArcelorMittal- elements. Retrieved 14/05/2009 from http://dotsub.com/view/cffe7553-7585-4cd5-ad80-38542493f36f



El Economista, 04/06/2007. Arcelor Mittal Launches Its New Global BrandTRANSFORMING TOMORROW. Retrieved 14/05/2009 from http://www.eleconomista.es/empresas-finanzas/noticias/223388/06/07/ArcelorMittalLaunches-Its-New-Global-Brand-TRANSFORMING-TOMORROW.html



Vanksenculturebuzz, s.d. ARCELORMITTAL LAUNCHES 2ND SEASON OF WEB TV. New 2.0 initiative for the steel giant. Retrieved 06/06/2009 from http://www.culture-buzz.com/clients/ArcelorMittal-Launches-2nd-Season-of-Web-TV1711.html

5.5 Other 

Wikipedia, s.d. Lakshmi Mittal. Retrieved 14/04/2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi_Mittal



De Standaard, 27/04/2009, Mittal verliest meest. Retrieved 01/05/2009 from http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=4Q29GTIR


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World Steel Association, 2009 News releases. Retrieved from http://www.worldsteel.org/?action=newslist



Wikipedia, s.d. Nippon Steel. Retrieved 15/05/2009 from http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Steel



Wikipedia, s.d. POSCO. Retrieved 15/05/2009 from http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSCO



Wikipedia, s.d. JFE Holdings. Retrieved 15/05/2009 from http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFE_Holdings



Broeckx, K, Verstraeten, B, Vennekens, R, March 2003. Aluminium, het material van de toekomst. Retrieved 19/05/2009 from http://www.bilibs.be/nl/Metallerie/pdf/N11MET47okp.pdf



Steel Grips, 20/02/2009. Carbon-nanotubes-reinforced aluminum - an alternative to steel? Retrieved 20/05/2009 from http://www.steelgrips.com/newsdesk/rd_news/Carbon-nanotubes-reinforced_aluminum__an_alternative_to_steel.html



Wikipedia, s.d. Metal Matrix Composite. Retrieved 28/05/2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_matrix_composite



Composite Metal Technologies PLC, s.d. Metal Matrix Composite. Retrieved 28/05/2009 from http://www.cmt-ltd.com/html/mat_1.htm



Blomme, Leen e.a.: Imagostudie Bij De Omwonenden ArcelorMittal Gent. Ongepubliceerde paper.



ArcelorMittal Gent, s.d. Formule 1. Retrieved 25/05/2009 from ArcelorMittal Gent Intranet.



KGT2008, s.d. KGT2008. Retrieved 29/05/2009 from http://www.kgt2008.nl/www/scripts/content.php?pageID=3

Universiteit Gent Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte Meertalige Bedrijfscommunicatie Academiejaar 2008-2009

Internal and external communication at ArcelorMittal Gent: Bijlagen

Hannelore Blomme Promotor: Geert Jacobs

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT – ANNEXES

2

Table of contents Table of contents ................................................................................................................... 2 1.

2.

3.

4.

Articles from Sidmar Nieuws concerning the merger between Arcelor and Mittal ........... 3 1.1

October 2006 .......................................................................................................... 3

1.2

February 2007 ......................................................................................................... 8

1.3

June 2007 ............................................................................................................... 9

1.4

February 2008 ........................................................................................................11

Sidmar Berichten concerning the merger between Arcelor and Mittal Steel ..................12 2.1

June 26, 2006 ........................................................................................................12

2.2

August 3rd, 2006 ....................................................................................................14

2.3

August 4th, 2006 ....................................................................................................14

2.4

September 19th, 2006 ............................................................................................16

2.5

October 18th, 2006.................................................................................................17

2.6

November 6th, 2006 ...............................................................................................18

2.7

November 20th, 2006 .............................................................................................19

2.8

January 23th, 2007.................................................................................................19

2.9

May 30th, 2007 ......................................................................................................20

2.10

S.D. ....................................................................................................................21

2.11

S.D. ....................................................................................................................22

Slides on the information screens .................................................................................23 3.1

Week 32: announcement of the merger..................................................................23

3.2

Week 43: company visit of Mr. Mittal ......................................................................25

Examples of tasks done during my internship ...............................................................27 4.1

The website ............................................................................................................27

4.1.1

Revising existing texts .....................................................................................27

4.1.2

Writing new texts .............................................................................................31

4.2

Articles for 1 ...........................................................................................................36

4.2.1

Taking and writing out interviews.....................................................................36

4.2.2

Translating texts from the Group .....................................................................39

4.2.3

Rewriting texts from other departments ...........................................................40

4.2.4

Other: reportage ..............................................................................................40

4.3

Press overview .......................................................................................................43

4.3.1

Summary.........................................................................................................43

4.3.2

Translation ......................................................................................................43


1. Articles from Sidmar Nieuws concerning the merger between Arcelor and Mittal 1.1 October2006

3


4


5


6


7

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT – ANNEXES 1.2 February 2007

8

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT – ANNEXES 1.3 June 2007

9


10

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT – ANNEXES 1.4 February 2008

11


12

2. Sidmar Berichten concerning the merger between Arcelor and Mittal Steel 2.1 June 26, 2006 SIDMAR Berichten Nr. 91 van 26 juni 2006

Nieuwsbrief voor alle werknemers van de Sidmar-site

BERICHT VAN DE VOORZITTER VAN DE RAAD VAN BESTUUR VAN ARCELOR AAN ALLE MEDEWERKERS Beste Arcelor-medewerker, De Raad van Bestuur van Arcelor heeft op zondag 25 juni een unanieme beslissing genomen die de toekomst van onze Groep sterk zal beïnvloeden. De Raad van Bestuur van Arcelor zal de aandeelhouders aanbevelen om de voorgestelde fusie met Mittal Steel te aanvaarden om zo een nieuwe fusiegroep Arcelor-Mittal te creëren. De beslissing van de Raad vloeide voort uit het resultaat van de onderhandelingen met Mittal Steel dat het best tegemoet kwam aan de belangen van de aandeelhouders en van alle belanghebbenden, in het bijzonder de medewerkers. Eind januari verzette de Raad zich tegen het bod van Mittal Steel omdat het de waarde van Arcelor ernstig onderwaardeerde en er niet in slaagde de belangen van de belanghebbenden te respecteren, vooral wat het bestuurs- en ontwikkelingsmodel van de Groep betrof. Als gevolg van dit bod ontwikkelde Arcelor een belangrijk programma om waarde te creëren, gebaseerd op de resultaten van 2005, en diende ze een fusievoorstel met Severstal in, dat gebaseerd was op een gemeenschappelijke industriële visie. Deze initiatieven brachten Mittal Steel ertoe om het eerste bod grondig te herbekijken en de voorgestelde waarde en het model voor bestuur en industriële ontwikkeling aan te passen. Na een grondige evaluatie van beide voorstellen besliste de Raad van Bestuur om het nieuwe bod van Mittal Steel aan te bevelen bij onze aandeelhouders, aangezien het meer waarde voor hen creëert en tegelijk het Arcelor-model behoudt en verder ontwikkelt. Het nieuwe bod van Arcelor is gebaseerd op een prijs van 40,4 EUR per aandeel, een cijfer dat de waarde van de Groep correct weerspiegelt. Het voorgestelde model voor bestuur en industriële ontwikkeling zal dat van Arcelor zijn. Het nieuwe bod van Mittal Steel integreert ons ontwikkelingsmodel dat van toepassing zal zijn op de nieuwe fusiegroep. De bereikte overeenkomst met Mittal zal onze arbeidsovereenkomsten, ons industrieel model en de geplande investeringen in de Arcelor-vestigingen garanderen. Arcelor heeft zich verzet tegen de verkoop van Dofasco. Tot slot, ook vanuit financieel oogpunt is het nieuwe bod aantrekkelijk voor de aandeelhouders, omdat het de waarde van Arcelor erkent na vier jaar van sterke groei die het resultaat is van uw inzet. Sind januari hebben we gezegd dat de uiteindelijke beslissing zal genomen worden door onze aandeelhouders die eigenaar zijn van dit bedrijf. De Raad van Bestuur en de Algemene Directie hebben er met grote vastberadenheid voor gezorgd dat de belangen van alle partijen bewaard bleven en dat de beslissing van onze aandeelhouders ook rekening hield met de belangen van onze medewerkers. Dit engagement en het waardecreatieprogramma dat eind februari werd aangekondigd, vormen de kern van de overeenkomst die we met Mittal Steel afsloten. We moeten nu de beslissing van onze aandeelhouders afwachten, die binnenkort bekend zal zijn. Zodra het bod finaal is, bestaat de voornaamste uitdaging erin om de succesvolle integratie van deze nieuwe groep te realiseren.


13

De beslissing zal een eind maken aan een lange periode van wachten voor ieder van u. In naam van de Raad van Bestuur en de Algemene Directie, willen we u heel bijzonder bedanken voor uw actie de voorbije maanden. Uw sereniteit en engagement die tot voorbeeld strekken, hebben ons geholpen om de stevige fundamenten waarop ons bedrijfsmodel gebouwd is, aan te tonen. Dankzij uw prestatie zijn wij erin geslaagd een overeenkomst te bereiken die rekening houdt met de integrale waarde van het model dat we samen gebouwd hebben. Het is dit model – gebaseerd op efficiëntie, innovatie en respect – dat van ons de onbetwistbare leider van de staalindustrie maakt, nu en in de toekomst. De Voorzitter van de Raad van Bestuur

SAMENVATTING PERSMEDEDELING FUSIEVOORSTEL ARCELOR-MITTAL Op 25 juni kwam de Raad van Bestuur van Arcelor, voorgezeten door Joseph Kinsch, bijeen om de voordelen van beide fusieprojecten vanuit industrieel, financieel en sociaal oogpunt te vergelijken en te evalueren. De Raad van Bestuur kwam tot het besluit dat het aangepaste bod van Mittal Steel globaal gezien beter is dan het aangepaste bod van Severstal. Om deze reden heeft de Raad van Bestuur van Arcelor beslist om het nieuwe Mittal-bod unaniem aan te bevelen. De nieuwe fusiegroep zal luisteren naar de naam Acelor-Mittal en zal genoteerd zijn op de beurzen van New York, Parijs, Madrid, Amsterdam, Brussel en Luxemburg. De Raad van Bestuur is ervan overtuigd dat het nieuwe bod van Mittal Steel een aanzienlijke verbetering betekent in vergelijking met het vorige bod van 19 mei ll. Alle basisvoorwaarden die de Raad van Bestuur en de Algemene Directie van Arcelor hadden vooropgesteld, zijn ingelost. Er is ook rekening gehouden met de opmerkingen van de Europese Ondernemingsraad van Arcelor m.b.t. waardering, industrieel plan en deugdelijk bestuur. De voorgestelde fusie tussen Arcelor en Mittal Steel voorziet: • een gevoelige stijging van de aandeelhouderswaarde (+10%); • een bod in cash van 40,4 EUR per Arcelor-aandeel; • een omruilbod van 11 Mittal-aandelen tegen 7 Arcelor-aandelen; In overeenstemming met het Arcelor-model zal de nieuwe fusiegroep volgende principes hanteren: • een geïntegreerd bedrijfsmodel gebaseerd op leiderschap in staalproducten met een hoge toegevoegde waarde; • hightech industriële installaties op basis van een gezonde investeringspolitiek; • stroomopwaartsE integratie (upstream) met het oog op kostenleiderschap; • voorrang aan onderzoek en ontwikkeling; • commercieel leiderschap gebaseerd op Arcelors sterke distributiekanalen; • de beste standaarden op het vlak van veiligheid, gezondheid en milieu; • de beste standaarden op het vlak van ethiek en duurzaam ondernemen; • de beste praktijken op het vlak van sociale dialoog en maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen; • de belofte om alle industriële plannen uit te voeren en sociale engagementen van beide ondernemingen na te komen; • geen herstructureringen of personeelsafbouw bij Arcelor in Europa als gevolg van de fusie; • hoge winstmarges en een doelstelling om een dividend van 30% uit te keren; • een gezonde kapitaalstructuur. Arcelor blijft zich verzetten tegen de verkoop van Dofasco. Het model van deugdelijk bestuur zal gebaseerd zijn op de beste praktijken en dus op het bestaande Arcelor-model:

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT – ANNEXES • • •

• • •

14

er zal maar één categorie aandelen bestaan en aan elk aandeel zal één stem verbonden zijn; de Raad van Bestuur en de Algemene Directie zullen functioneren als aparte organen en de Raad van Bestuur zal bestaan uit een meerderheid aan onafhankelijke bestuurders. De Raad van Bestuur van de nieuwe fusiegroep zal bestaan uit 18 bestuurders, waarvan 12 bestaande Arcelor-bestuurders (met inbegrip van 3 vertegenwoordigers van werknemerszijde), en 6 bestuurders benoemd door Mittal Steel, waarvan 3 onafhankelijk. Elke bestuurder zal over één stem beschikken. De familie Mittal zal ongeveer 43% van de nieuwe fusiegroep in handen hebben. De hoofdzetel zal gevestigd zijn in Luxemburg. De Algemene Directie van de nieuwe groep zal bestaan uit 7 leden, de 4 huidige Arcelorleden, en 3 leden die zullen benoemd worden door de Raad van Bestuur van Mittal Steel.

2.2 August 3rd, 2006 SIDMAR Berichten Nr. 95 van 3 augustus 2006

Nieuwsbrief voor alle werknemers van de Arcelor Gentsite

Boodschap van Joseph Kinsch aan alle Arcelor-medewerkers Vandaag hebben we de resultaten van Arcelor en van Mittal Steel bekendgemaakt voor het eerste semester van 2006 alsook een zogenaamd “pro forma” resultaat voor Arcelor Mittal (dit is een resultaatraming van beide groepen samen, alsof de fusie al zou gerealiseerd zijn). Deze resultaten zijn zeer goed, met een EBITDA van 2,8 miljard € voor Arcelor op het einde van het eerste semester 2006 en een EBITDA van 5,5 miljard € voor het gecombineerde geheel Arcelor Mittal. We hebben deze resultaten gerealiseerd ondanks een zeer sterke stijging van de grondstoffenprijzen. Ik wil dan ook al onze teams bedanken voor hun bijdrage tot deze prestatie. De voorbije weken hebben we diepgaande gesprekken gevoerd met Mittal Steel over de samenstelling van de Algemene Directie van de toekomstige groep. Het resultaat van deze gesprekken is dat de toekomstige Algemene Directie uit zes leden zal bestaan, drie van Arcelor en drie van Mittal Steel. Op vrijdag 4 augustus e.k. zal de Raad van Bestuur van Arcelor de drie leden aanduiden die Arcelor zullen vertegenwoordigen in de nieuwe Algemene Directie, waaronder ook de CEO (Voorzitter van de Algemene Directie). De samenstelling van de nieuwe Algemene Directie zal dezelfde dag nog aangekondigd worden en het integratieproces zal kort daarna aanvangen. Joseph Kinsch

2.3 August 4th, 2006 SIDMAR Berichten Nr. 96 van 4 augustus 2006

Nieuwsbrief voor alle werknemers van de Arcelor Gent-site

Boodschap van Joseph Kinsch aan alle medewerkers van de groep Zoals woensdag 2 augustus aangekondigd naar aanleiding van de publicatie van onze halfjaarresultaten, is de Raad van Bestuur van Arcelor op vrijdag 4 augustus samengekomen om de drie leden aan te duiden die Arcelor zullen vertegenwoordigen in de nieuwe Algemene Directie van Arcelor Mittal, waaronder ook de Voorzitter van de Algemene Directie (CEO).


15

Na afloop van deze Raad van Bestuur en in overeenstemming met de benoemingen beslist door de Raad van Bestuur van Mittal Steel, heb ik het genoegen u de samenstelling van de nieuwe Algemene Directie van Arcelor Mittal mee te delen. Roland Junck zal de Voorzitter van de Algemene Directie (CEO) zijn. Daarnaast zal de Algemene Directie bestaan uit: Aditya Mittal, Financieel Directeur (CFO), ook verantwoordelijk voor Vlakke Producten Amerika; Michel Wurth, Senior Executive Vice President, verantwoordelijk voor Vlakke Producten Europa; Malay Mukherjee, Senior Executive Vice President, verantwoordelijk voor Roestvast Staal, mijnactiviteiten, Azië en Afrika; Gonzalo Urquijo, Senior Executive Vice President, verantwoordelijk voor Lange Producten en Distributie; Davinder Chugh, Senior Executive Vice President, verantwoordelijk voor gemeenschappelijke Diensten. In akkoord met Guy Dollé informeer ik u dat hij zich bereid verklaard heeft om volop mee te werken aan het integratieproces van de nieuwe groep. Ik ben zeker dat zijn grondige ervaring binnen onze industrie en zijn markten, alsook zijn sleutelrol in het integratieproces van de Arcelor-groep hem in staat zullen stellen om een waardevolle bijdrage te leveren tot dit proces. De Raad van Bestuur van de nieuwe groep zal bestaan uit zes vertegenwoordigers van Arcelor, zes vertegenwoordigers van Mittal Steel, drie vertegenwoordigers van de aandeelhouders en drie vertegenwoordigers van de werknemers: Vertegenwoordigers van Arcelor - Joseph Kinsch, Chairman van de Raad van Bestuur - José Ramón Álvarez Rendueles (Onafhankelijk) - Edmond Pachura (Onafhankelijk) - ZKH Prins Guillaume van Luxemburg (Onafhankelijk) - Sergio Silva de Freitas (Onafhankelijk) - Jean-Pierre Hansen (Onafhankelijk) Vertegenwoordigers van Mittal Steel - Lakshmi N. Mittal, President van de Raad van Bestuur - Vanisha Mittal - Wilbur Ross - Lewis Kaden (Onafhankelijk) - François Pinault (Onafhankelijk) - Narayanan Vaghul (Onafhankelijk) Vertegenwoordigers van de aandeelhouders - Georges Schmit (Luxemburgse Staat) - Antoine Spillmann (JMAC) - Romain Zaleski (Tassara) Vertegenwoordigers van de werknemers - John Castegnaro - Michel Marti - Manuel Fernández López Ik wens al onze teams te bedanken voor hun engagement voor de Arcelor-groep, en voor de toekomst van Arcelor Mittal, de wereldleider binnen de staalindustrie. Joseph Kinsch


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2.4 September 19th, 2006 SIDMAR Berichten nr. 98 van 19 september 2006.

Nieuwsbrief voor alle werknemers van de Sidmar-site

Directiestructuur Arcelor Mittal Begin augustus informeerden we je over de samenstelling van de nieuwe Algemene Directie van Arcelor Mittal. Ondertussen is er ook bekend welke bevoegdheden de verschillende leden van de Algemene Directie zullen hebben in de nieuwe groep. Roland Junck zal de Voorzitter (CEO) van de Algemene Directie zijn. Onder zijn verantwoordelijkheid vallen Personeelsbeheer, Gezondheid, Veiligheid en Milieu, Commerciële Coördinatie, Marketing, Internationale aangelegenheden en China. De andere leden van de Algemene Directie zullen volgende verantwoordelijkheden opnemen: 

   

Aditya Mittal zal als Financieel Directeur (CFO) verantwoordelijk zijn voor Financiën, Verzekeringen, Risicobeheer, Planning & Controlling, Budgetten, Consolidatie, Groepsboekhouding, Belastingen en Fiscaliteit, Investor Relations, Fusies en Acquisities, Communicatie. Daarnaast zal hij ook verantwoordelijk zijn voor Vlakke Producten Amerika. Michel Wurth, Senior Executive Vice President, wordt verantwoordelijk voor Vlakke Producten Europa [1], Automobiel, Dikke Platen, Onderzoek en Ontwikkeling, de Alliantie met Nippon Steel Corporation en Verpakking. Malay Mukherjee, Senior Executive Vice President, krijgt als bevoegdheden de Mijnactiviteiten, Afrika, Azië, Zuid-Europa (Bosnië, Macedonië), GOS [2] (Oekraïne, Kazachstan), Roestvast Staal, Buizen. Gonzalo Urquijo, Senior Executive Vice President, wordt bevoegd voor Arcelor Mittal Steel Solutions and Services (AM3S), Lange Producten Europa, Lange Producten Amerika, Draadtrekkerijen. Devinder Chugh, Senior Executive Vice President, wordt verantwoordelijk voor Gemeenschappelijke Diensten: Inkoop, Juridische aangelegenheden, Informatica en andere acitviteiten.

Naast de Algemene Directie zal er ook een Managementcomité opgericht worden met 24 leden, waaronder de 6 leden van de Algemene Directie. De taken van het Managementcomité zijn: 1. Bespreking en voorbereiding van overkoepelende Groepsbeslissingen. 2. Integratie van de geografische dimensie van de onderneming. 3. Organisatie van gedetailleerde besprekingen met de operationele verantwoordelijken van Arcelor. 4. Overdracht van informatie over de situatie van de Groep en zijn omgeving. De 18 bijkomende leden van het Managementcomité zijn: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Roeland Baan Gilles Biau Alain Bouchard Jose Armando Campos Narenda Chaudhary Christophe Cornier Philippe Darmayan Bernard Fontana Jean-Yves Gilet Sudhir Maheshwari Carlo Panunzi Michael Pfitzner

CEO Buizen, Zuid-Afrika Medeverantwoordelijke Personeelsbeheer groep Hoofd van Inkoop wereldwijd CEO Vlakke Producten Zuid-Amerika CEO Azië GOS CEO Vlakke Producten Europa CEO Arcelor Mittal Steel Solutions & Services (AM3S) CEO Automobiel wereldwijd CEO Roestvast Staal Hoofd van Financiën, Fusies & Acquisities CEO Lange Producten Amerika Hoofd Commerciële Coördinatie

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT – ANNEXES 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

Gerhard Renz Mike Rippey Lou Schorsch Bill Scotting André Van den Bossche Inder Walia

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CEO Lange Producten Europa CEO VSA CEO Vlakke Producten Amerika Hoofd Continue Verbetering Hoofd Marketing Medeverantwoordelijke Personeelsbeheer groep

AESOPE 2006: stand van zaken Naar aanleiding van de recente persartikels over de fusie Arcelor Mittal, hebben heel wat medewerkers vragen over de Arcelor-aandelen die ze eerder dit jaar kochten in het kader van AESOPE 2006. Hoeveel Arcelor-aandelen heeft Mittal nu al in handen? Op 25 augustus 2006 had Mittal Steel (“Mittal”) 93,7% van de Arcelor-aandelen verworven. Mittal wil nu ook de rest van de aandelen van Arcelor in handen krijgen. Mittal biedt 40,40 EUR voor een Arcelor-aandeel. De aandeelhouders hebben tijd tot 17 november om op het bod in te gaan. Van zodra Mittal 95% van de aandelen in zijn bezit heeft, zal een “squeeze out” of uitkoopbod plaatsvinden. Wat is een “squeeze out” of uitkoopbod? Iedere natuurlijke persoon of iedere rechtspersoon die 95% van de aandelen van een vennootschap bezit, kan door middel van een uitkoopbod het geheel van de aandelen van deze vennootschap verkrijgen, tegen betaling van een correcte prijs. De minderheidsaandeelhouders worden op dat moment “verplicht” hun aandelen te verkopen. Deze procedure beschermt de belangen van de minderheidsaandeelhouders: de kleine hoeveelheid overblijvende Arcelor-aandelen die op de beurs verhandeld kan worden zou immers niet volstaan om tegemoet te komen aan de normale aan- of verkoopvragen m.b.t. het Arcelor-aandeel. Wat betekent dit voor de medewerkers die Arcelor-aandelen gekocht hebben in het kader van AESOPE 2006? De Arcelor-aandelen die je verworven hebt in het kader van AESOPE 2006 zijn geblokkeerd voor een periode van vier jaar (standaard) of 2 jaar (vervroegde deblokkering). Dat heeft te maken met de fiscale en financiële voordelen die je werden toegekend. Dat betekent dat je momenteel niet kan ingaan op het bod van Mittal. Wanneer Mittal er tegen 17 november niet in slaagt 95% van de aandelen te verwerven, zal er geen “squeeze out” of uitkoopbod plaatsvinden en zullen de regels van het AESOPE-plan toegepast worden. Dit betekent dat je na afloop van de blokkeringsperiode – dit is standaard 4 jaar of uitzonderlijk 2 jaar indien je recht hebt op vervroegde deblokkering – je Arcelor-aandelen zal kunnen verkopen. Voor 7 Arcelor-aandelen zal je dan de waarde van 11 Mittal-aandelen krijgen. Bij een eventueel uitkoopbod of “squeeze out” (bekend uiterlijk op 17 november 2006) zullen je Arcelor-aandelen gedeblokkeerd worden en zullen ze automatisch overgedragen (verkocht) worden aan Mittal. Wij zullen je op het juiste moment ook verder informeren over de (fiscale) gevolgen van een eventueel uitkoopbod.

2.5 October 18th, 2006 SIDMAR Berichten Nr. 100 van 18 oktober 2006 Arcelor Gent

Nieuwsbrief voor alle werknemers van de site


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Mittal maakt kennis met Arcelor Gent Lakshmi Mittal, Voorzitter van de Raad van Bestuur van Arcelor Mittal en Aditya Mittal, Financieel Directeur van Arcelor Mittal, brachten op dinsdag 17 oktober een bezoek aan Arcelor Gent en aan Arcelor Research Industry Gent. Het bezoek past in een rondreis die Lakshmi Mittal maakt langs een aantal Europese staalbedrijven en onderzoekscentra. Na het bezoek aan Arcelor Gent op 17 oktober, trok Mittal op 18 oktober naar Arcelor Florange en het onderzoekscentrum van Maizières-les-Metz. Het Managementcomité van Arcelor Gent verwelkomde Lakshmi en Aditya Mittal, die nog vergezeld waren van Michel Wurth (lid van de Algemene Directie van Arcelor Mittal), Christophe Cornier (lid van het Managementcomité van Arcelor Mittal), Robrecht Himpe (verantwoordelijk voor Upstream binnen de sector vlak-koolstofstaal West-Europa), Pierre Gugliermina (verantwoordelijk voor Downstream binnen de sector vlak-koolstofstaal West-Europa), Hedwig Vergote (lid van de Raad van Bestuur van Arcelor Steel Belgium), Patrick Depardon (verantwoordelijk voor verkoop aan industrie), Jean-Luc Maurange (verantwoordelijk voor verkoop aan automobielindustrie Europa) en Jean-Louis Pierquin (verantwoordelijk voor onderzoek en ontwikkeling). Het Managementcomité van Arcelor Gent gaf uitgebreid toelichting bij de activiteiten van de Site-, Upstream- en Downstream-afdelingen. De klemtoon lag op de troeven van Arcelor Gent: de rationele inplanting van de verschillende productieafdelingen op één geïntegreerde site, de interactie tussen Upstream en Downstream met bvb. één overkoepelende cel voor productieplanning en kwaliteitsbeheer, het teamwerk tussen de afdelingen, het kostenbewustzijn, de bedrijfszekerheid van de installaties, het investeringsbeleid, de productiviteit, de aandacht voor opleiding, kennisbeheer en arbeidstevredenheid, het belang van informatica en automatisering,… Na een lunch met de hoofden van de afdelingen en een korte vergadering met de vakbonden trok het gezelschap de fabriek in voor een bezoek aan continu-gieterij 2, de warmwalserij, de walsenwerkplaats en de TTS (koudwalserijen), de dompelverzinklijnen en Arcelor Tailored Blank Gent. Nadien vond er nog een rondleiding in het onderzoekscentrum Arcelor Research Industry Gent plaats. Het bezoek van Mittal aan Arcelor Gent heeft bij iedereen een positieve indruk nagelaten. Lakshmi en Aditya Mittal toonden zich bijzonder geïnteresseerd in onze site en stelden vele vragen, zowel tijdens de uiteenzettingen ‟s morgens als tijdens het bezoek in de namiddag. Lakshmi Mittal had zelf ook veel lovende woorden voor Arcelor Gent door te stellen dat we een referentie zijn voor vele andere sites. Hij kondigde aan dat in de nieuwe fusiegroep Arcelor Mittal veiligheid, kostenbewustzijn en efficiëntie topprioriteit zullen zijn.

2.6 November 6th, 2006 SIDMAR Berichten Nr. 101 van 6 november 2006 Nieuwsbrief voor alle werknemers van de site Arcelor Gent Wijziging in de directiestructuur van Arcelor Mittal De Raad van Bestuur van Arcelor Mittal kondigt vandaag (6 november) een wijziging aan van de samenstelling van de Algemene Directie. De Raad van Bestuur heeft Lakshmi Mittal unaniem benoemd als nieuwe Voorzitter van de Algemene Directie (CEO). De benoeming wordt onmiddellijk van kracht. Lakshmi Mittal zal ook President van de Raad van Bestuur blijven. Roland Junck heeft zijn functie als Voorzitter van de Algemene Directie beëindigd, maar zal wel lid blijven van de Algemene Directie met zijn bestaande portefeuille en met een bijkomende verantwoordelijkheid als adviseur van Lakshmi Mittal. De nieuwe Algemene Directie bestaat uit:

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT – ANNEXES • • • • • •

19

Lakshmi Mittal Aditya Mittal Roland Junck Michel Wurth Gonzalo Urquijo Malay Mukherjee

Davinder Chugh zal zijn operationele functies behouden en zal rechtstreeks rapporteren aan Lakshmi Mittal. In Sidmar Nieuws 8 dat eerstdaags in je bus zal vallen, is een artikel opgenomen met algemene informatie over de nieuwe fusiegroep Arcelor Mittal. Aangezien dit nummer vorige week gedrukt werd, is er in dat artikel nog geen rekening gehouden met de nieuwe directiestructuur.

2.7 November 20th, 2006 SIDMAR Berichten Nr. 102 van 20 november 2006

Nieuwsbrief voor alle werknemers van de site Arcelor Gent

AESOPE 2006 – Plan voor Aandeelhouderschap van Werknemers Stand van zaken van het recht op verkoop De werknemers van Arcelor Gent, evenals hun collega‟s in andere Arcelor-sites, kregen in het voorjaar van 2006 de kans om aandelen Arcelor aan te kopen aan bijzondere voorwaarden via het programma AESOPE 2006. Meer dan 1.100 werknemers van Arcelor Gent en OCAS hebben deelgenomen aan AESOPE 2006, dit is + 20% van het personeel. Samen schreven zij in op meer dan 100.000 Arcelor-aandelen. Deze werknemers-aandeelhouders werden einde oktober jl. ingelicht dat zij nu al hun recht op verkoop van deze aandelen mochten uitoefenen (geen verplichting) en dit tegen 17 november 2006. Hiertoe ontvingen zij een informatiepakket van Arcelor Corporate (via de bank CACEIS), alsook aanvullende inlichtingen o.m. via Arcelor Gent. Volgens de laatste, nog voorlopige cijfergegevens hebben 94% van de werknemers-aandeelhouders van Arcelor Gent en OCAS gebruik gemaakt van deze mogelijkheid en hebben zij aldus een fraaie winst op hun belegging kunnen realiseren. Heb je aandelen gekocht via AESOPE 2006? Zodra de exacte gegevens worden doorgestuurd door de Arcelor-Groep, zal je binnenkort meer nieuws ontvangen over de wijze waarop je het verkoopbedrag “in handen” zal krijgen. Dit wordt op korte termijn verwacht. Vandaag heeft Arcelor Mittal via een persmededeling officieel bevestigd dat de periode van het recht op verkoop ondertussen is verstreken op de eerder bepaalde datum van vrijdag 17 november jongstleden. In hetzelfde bericht wordt aangekondigd dat er niet overgegaan wordt tot een verplicht uitkoopbod (een zogenaamd “squeeze out”) van de nog resterende Arcelor-aandelen, omdat Mittal per 17.11.2006 geen 95% van de aandelen Arcelor heeft verworven (zoals vereist door de Luxemburgse wetgeving om een squeeze out te kunnen uitoefenen).

2.8 January 23th, 2007 SIDMAR Berichten


Nr. 105 van 23 januari 2007 Arcelor Gent

20

Nieuwsbrief voor alle werknemers van de site

Beleidsverklaring 2007 Op dinsdag 16 januari vond de 16e beleidsverklaring plaats. Site-directeur Luc Bonte, directeur Upstream Geert Van Poelvoorde en directeur Downstream Kris Stevens blikten terug op het voorbije jaar en stelden de doelstellingen voor het komende jaar voorop. In Sidmar Nieuws januari kan je een uitgebreid artikel lezen over de beleidsverklaring, maar hieronder vind je al de voornaamste gedachten: Luc Bonte, Site-directeur Geboorte van Arcelor Mittal: Sinds 2006 maken wij deel uit van een nieuwe staalgroep, Arcelor Mittal, met 330.000 werknemers en een productiecapaciteit van meer dan 100 miljoen ton. Een staalgroep die met kop en schouders uitsteekt boven zijn concurrenten en die zijn concurrentiële positie wil behouden.

[…]

2.9 May 30th, 2007 SIDMAR Berichten Nr. 114 van 30 mei 2007

Nieuwsbrief voor alle werknemers van de site Arcelor Gent

Bericht van ArcelorMittal over de nieuwe huisstijl Beste collega‟s, Op vrijdag 1 juni zullen we de nieuwe huisstijl van ArcelorMittal officieel lanceren, zowel intern als extern. Op dezelfde dag gaat de nieuwe Internet- en Intranet-site van ArcelorMittal online. 1 juni vormt ook de start van onze nieuwe organisatie wereldwijd. We hebben een advertentiecampagne ontwikkeld die vanaf 4 juni in de verschillende media zal verschijnen. Een voorsmaakje van de nieuwe huisstijl wordt vandaag getoond op de Conventie van de Groep in het Franse Cannes. Onze nieuwe huisstijl omvat in de eerste plaats een logo en visuele identiteit, maar is veel meer dan dat. De nieuwe huisstijl weerspiegelt het imago dat we hebben bij onze eigen medewerkers en in de buitenwereld. Het weerspiegelt onze strategie, onze visie, onze waarden, onze manier van zaken doen en last but not least onze producten. Het spreekt voor zich dat heel wat communicatiedragers zoals huisstijldocumenten, uithangborden, advertenties, websites, werkkledij en bedrijfsvoertuigen, een nieuwe ArcelorMittal-“look” zullen krijgen. Daarnaast willen we dat de nieuwe huisstijl ook doordringt in andere, minder zichtbare domeinen zoals sponsoring. Eigenlijk willen we dat onze huisstijl al onze acties beïnvloedt. Tot slot, onze huisstijl zal door de tijd heen evolueren. Onze huisstijl symboliseert onze ambities van groei, stabiliteit en maatschappelijke bijdrage. We willen dat onze huisstijl de identiteit en strategie van onze onderneming uitdrukt. De huisstijl zorgt voor eenheid in een groep die alsmaar verder uitbreidt. Daarom is het belangrijk dat al onze medewerkers zich verbonden voelen met onze nieuwe onderneming, onze huisstijl en onze waarden. ArcelorMittal

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT – ANNEXES 2.10

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S.D.

Wijziging adres en maatschappelijke zetel Vanaf 2 juni 2008 wijzigen het adres en de maatschappelijke zetel van Arcelor Steel Belgium NV. Oude naam + maatschappelijke zetel Arcelor Steel Belgium NV (*) Ijzerlaan 24 1040 Brussel BE 0400.106.291 RPR Brussel

Nieuwe naam + maatschappelijke zetel ArcelorMittal Belgium NV (*) Koning Albert II – laan 35 1030 Brussel BE 0400.106.291 RPR Brussel (*) met vestigingen te Gent, Geel, Genk, Luik en La Praye

De technische bedrijfseenheid of sitenaam wijzigt niet en blijft dus „ArcelorMittal Gent‟. De documenten waarin de oude juridische naam en / of de oude maatschappelijke zetel worden gebruikt, zullen worden vervangen door nieuwe documenten. Voor documenten met elektronische templates (vb. brief, fax, interne nota) zullen de wijzigingen automatisch doorgevoerd worden . De coördinatie hiervan gebeurt door Christine Gouwy. De documenten waarin enkel de sitenaam (ArcelorMittal Gent) wordt vermeld, moeten NIET worden aangepast. Verhuis boekhouding ArcelorMittal Gent Vanaf maandag 19 mei 2008 verhuizen de boekhoudkundige diensten van ArcelorMittal Gent naar het „Accounting Shared Service Center Brussels‟. In dit „Accounting Shared Service Center Brussels‟ worden de boekhoudkundige activiteiten samengebracht van de Belgische vestigingen van de sectoren vlak-koolstofstaal, roestvast staal, zware platen en Small & Medium enterprises (dochtervennootschappen). Ook de boekhouding van de verkoopagentschappen van de sector vlak-koolstofstaal West-Eruopa en van ArcelorMittal Sourcing komt onder de koepel van het ASSC Brussels. Voor de vennootschappen binnen deze sectoren gaat het om volgende diensten :  financiële en investeringsboekhouding  kostprijsboekhouding  leveranciersboekhouding  incasso (klantenboekhouding) voor ArcelorMittal Gent enkel de verkoop van bijproducten zoals teer, benzol, ijzeroxiden, hoogoven-slak, … Het „Accounting Shared Service Center Brussels‟ is gevestigd in het „Ellipse-gebouw‟ (gelegen vlakbij Noordstation) op de 18e verdieping. Adres : Koning Albert II laan 35, 1030 Brussel. CONTROLLING De dienst controlling blijft op de site te Gent en de contactpersonen wijzigen niet. INTERNE POST De briefwisseling vanuit de verschillende afdelingen met onze boekhoudkundige diensten zal in de toekomst via onze interne post blijven verlopen. Dit betreft ondermeer : onkostennota‟s goedkeuring tot betalen documenten voor de maandafsluiting documenten rechtstreeks van externe partijen ontvangen, maar bestemd voor de boekhouding …


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Interne post voor de diensten in het Ellipse-gebouw in Brussel stuur je naar : BR18 - Postbus 1 (of PB 1) boekhouding ArcelorMittal Gent Een koerierdienst zal de interne post 1 keer per dag (rond 16 uur) naar Brussel brengen. Dit kan een dag vertraging betekenen in vergelijking met vandaag. Indien de informatie strikt tijdsgebonden is (vb. informatie voor afsluiting), verstuur je die best via mail (na inscannen) of fax.

2.11

S.D.

Managementwijziging bij ArcelorMittal Gent Christophe Cornier werd in mei benoemd tot lid van de groepsdirectie, onder meer verantwoordelijk voor de activiteiten van de ArcelorMittal-groep in Afrika, Azië en Indië. Voorheen was Christophe Cornier hoofd van de Vlakke Producten West-Europa en Vijay Bhatnagar hoofd van de Vlakke Producten Oost-Europa. Beiden werden opgevolgd door Robrecht Himpe die benoemd werd tot CEO (Chief Executive Officer) van de Vlakke Producten in Europa (Flat Carbon Europe). Dit omvat sites met een totaal productievolume van ca. 45 miljoen ton vloeibaar staal (inclusief 4,5 miljoen ton voor halffabrikaten voor lange producten en dikke platen) en ca. 80.000 medewerkers. Het productievolume van 45 miljoen ton vertegenwoordigt ca. 40 % van de ArcelorMittal-groep. De productiesites uit de sector vlak-koolstofstaal Europa worden gegroepeerd in drie eenheden:  De eenheid Noord waartoe onder andere de sites in Gent (inclusief Geel en Genk), Luik, Bremen, Duinkerke en Florange behoren;  De eenheid Zuid waartoe onder andere Fos, Asturias, Sagunto, Piombino en Galati behoren;  De eenheid Oost waartoe onder andere de sites in Eisenhüttenstadt, Dabrowa en Krakow behoren. Dit heeft gevolgen voor de structuur van het managementcomité van ArcelorMittal Gent:  Geert Van Poelvoorde, huidig site- en “upstream”-directeur van ArcelorMittal Gent, wordt lid van het Management Committee Flat Carbon Europe en CEO van de eenheid Noord.  Paul Verstraeten, directeur bij ArcelorMittal Gent bevoegd voor milieu, facilities‟ management, inkoop, interne en externe communicatie en externe relaties wordt Executive Secretary van het Management Committee Flat Carbon Europe en Country Manager Flanders. Het nieuwe managementcomité van ArcelorMittal Gent zal vanaf 1 juli 2008 uit de volgende vijf leden bestaan:  Marc Vereecke, vandaag “downstream”-directeur voor alle productieafdelingen uit de koude fase en voor klantenrelaties en kwaliteit, wordt CEO van ArcelorMittal Gent en voorzitter van het managementcomité.  Patrick Deforche, vandaag hoofd van de cokesfabriek, wordt “upstream”-directeur (ook “COO (Chief Operational Officer) Primary” genoemd) voor alle productieafdelingen van de warme fase van ArcelorMittal Gent.  João Félix da Silva, vandaag hoofd van de klantenrelaties van ArcelorMittal Luik, wordt “downstream”-directeur (ook “COO Finishing” genoemd) voor alle productieafdelingen uit de koude fase en voor klantenrelaties en kwaliteit.  Guy Bontinck blijft directeur personeelsbeheer, kaderbeleid en opleiding en vorming.  Lieve Logghe blijft directeur accounting en controlling en wordt ook verantwoordelijk voor inkoop.


3. Slides on the information screens 3.1 Week 32: announcement of the merger

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3.2 Week 43: company visit of Mr. Mittal

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4. Examples of tasks done during my internship 4.1 The website 4.1.1 Revising existing texts One of the many texts I revised was about the environment. This was the original text: Duurzaam evenwicht tussen economie, ecologie en sociale belangen Een geïntegreerd staalbedrijf, dat uit ertsen en steenkool, kwalitatief hoogwaardige beklede staalplaat produceert, heeft onvermijdelijk een grote impact op de omgeving. Het management van ArcelorMittal Gent is zeer begaan met milieuzorg en besloot in 1992 om de coördinatie van alle milieuactiviteiten te bundelen in een eigen milieudienst. Momenteel telt ons team 12 medewerkers waaronder 7 universtitair geschoolden (1), (2). Zij (a) zijn fulltime bezig met milieuzorg. De missie van de milieudienst is als volgt samen te vatten:       

Ontwikkeling van het milieubeleid van het bedrijf met als doel de hinder voor de omgeving continu te verminderen Bewaking van de conformiteit met de wetgeving en anticiperen op nieuwe wetgeving Milieuvriendelijke toepassingen zoeken voor onze reststoffen met het accent op recyclage Zorgen voor de nodige exploitatievergunningen, begeleiden van MER studies enz (b). Communicatie met overheden, buurtbewoners enz. In stand houden van de fauna en flora op onze terreinen Dit alles borgen in een milieuzorgsysteem dat voldoet aan de internationaal ISO 14001 norm. (3)

Medewerkers van de milieudienst hebben een boeiende maar veeleisende job. Zij (c) moeten voortdurend een evenwicht zoeken tussen economie en ecologie. De uitdagingen worden steeds moeilijker naarmate de milieuwetgeving strenger wordt. Denken we maar aan de problematiek van het fijne stof (4), de broeikasgasproblematiek (5) en de beperkingen op de SO2- en NOx-emissies… Voor al deze problemen (d) moet een oplossing worden gevonden waarbij die goed is(6) voor het milieu maar ook de concurrentiekracht van de onderneming veilig stelt. Wij (7) moeten dus een duurzaam evenwicht vinden tussen economische, ecologische en sociale belangen.

These were my adaptations: 1) The sentence: “Momenteel telt ons team 12 medewerkers waaronder 7 universtitair geschoolden” is most probably no longer correct. Therefore, I decided to simply delete it. 2) There was a typing mistake in “universtitair”. I removed the redundant t. 3) The enumeration was not consequently written: in some sentences, a verb was used while in others, a noun. I changed all the nouns into verbs, since this is the most active form which is more agreeable to read. 4) The expression “het fijne stof” sounds odd in Dutch, since we usually don‟t add an article to “fijn stof”. I removed the article as well as the flexion.


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5) The word “problematiek” has already been used in the beginning of the sentence, and the repetition sounds awkward. I changed the whole phrase into “de problematiek van fijn stof en broeikasgassen”. 6) The sentence “… een oplossing waarbij die goed is” is grammatically incorrect: the word “waarbij” had to be deleted. 7) The use of “we” is inappropriate here: as I was told during the briefing, “we” should only be used if “ArcelorMittal Gent” is meant. Since this is not the case here (the text is about one particular department of the company), I had to rewrite that sentence. Davy Van Swael has read my adaptations and has added a few more changes: a) He changed “zij” into “de medewerkers van de milieudienst”. This was indeed necessary because the previous sentence had been deleted. I had overlooked this. b) Since I didn‟t know what “MER”-studies really are, and since I could find it nowhere, I had asked him what to do with this sentence. Davy informed me that MER stands for Milieu Effecten Rapporten (Reports on Environmental Effects) and suggested translating “MER-studies” into “studies in het kader van milieueffectenrapporten” (research concerning reports on environmental effects). c) Davy also changed “Zij” into “Ze”, which indeed sounds more fluent. d) He also replaced the word “problemen” into “thema‟s”, which is a more neutral term. The result of these changes is the following text: Duurzaam evenwicht tussen economie, ecologie en sociale belangen Een geïntegreerd staalbedrijf dat uit ertsen en steenkool kwalitatief hoogwaardige beklede staalplaat produceert, heeft onvermijdelijk een grote impact op de omgeving. Het management van ArcelorMittal Gent is zeer begaan met milieuzorg en besloot in 1992 om de coördinatie van alle milieuactiviteiten te bundelen in een eigen milieudienst. De medewerkers van de milieudienst zijn fulltime bezig met milieuzorg. De missie van de milieudienst is als volgt samen te vatten:       

Het milieubeleid van het bedrijf ontwikkelen om de hinder voor de omgeving continu te verminderen Waken over de conformiteit met de wetgeving en anticiperen op nieuwe wetgeving Milieuvriendelijke toepassingen zoeken voor onze reststoffen, met de nadruk/klemtoon op recyclage Zorgen voor de nodige exploitatievergunningen, studies in het kader van milieueffectenrapporten begeleiden enz. Communicatie verzorgen met overheden, buurtbewoners enz. De fauna en flora op onze terreinen in stand houden Dit alles borgen in een milieuzorgsysteem dat voldoet aan de internationale ISO 14001-norm.


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Medewerkers van de milieudienst hebben een boeiende, maar veeleisende job. Ze moeten voortdurend een evenwicht zoeken tussen economie en ecologie, en de uitdagingen worden steeds moeilijker naarmate de milieuwetgeving strenger wordt. Denken we maar aan de problematiek van fijn stof en broeikasgassen, of aan de beperkingen op de SO 2- en NOxemissies. Voor al die thema‟s moet een oplossing komen die goed is voor het milieu, maar ook de concurrentiekracht van de onderneming veiligstelt. Het komt er met andere woorden op aan een duurzaam evenwicht te vinden tussen economische, ecologische en sociale belangen.

I had to do the same for the equivalent text in English as well. This was the original text: A sustained balance between economic, ecological and social concerns An integrated steel plant that produces high-quality coated steel strip from coal and iron ore inevitably has a major impact upon (a) the environment. ArcelorMittal Gent's management takes a great interest in environmental responsibility, and took the decision in 1992 to coordinate all environment-related activities through a dedicated environmental department. At present, our team comprises 12 members, seven of whom are university graduates. They (2) are concerned full-time with environmental issues. The mission of the environmental department can be summarized (b) as follows: 

Development of an environmental policy for the plant with the objective to continuously reduce its impact upon the environment.



Monitoring of compliance with legislation, and anticipation of new legislation.



Seeking of applications with a lower environmental impact for our residual materials, with the emphasis upon recycling.



Application for the requisite licences, supporting of MER studies (c), etc.



Communication with the authorities, neighbouring communities, etc.



Maintenance of fauna and flora on our sites.



Assuring completion of these tasks within a system of environmental protection (d) that satisfies the international ISO 14001 standard. (3)

Staff of the environmental department have a job that is both satisfying and demanding. They are forever seeking a balance between economics and ecology. The challenges become tougher as environmental legislation becomes stricter.(e) Consider, for example, the issues of fine dust, greenhouse gases, and restrictions upon SO2 and NOx emissions. For each of these problems, a solution must be found which benefits the environment without endangering the company's competitiveness. We (4) must therefore find a sustainable balance between economic, ecological and social concerns.

I adapted the following: 1) Similar to the text in Dutch, the enumeration was not consequent: sometimes a noun was used, in other cases an ing-form of a verb. I decided to change all the sentences into noun-sentences. 2) I removed the sentence about the number of team members for the same reason as in the Dutch text: the information is dated. “They” in the next sentence was replaced by “Employees”.


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3) I changed “MER-studies” into “studies about reports of environmental effects”, although I myself was not very happy with this translation since it sounded a bit wordy. 4) For the same reason as in the Dutch text, I removed the “we” and changed it into “ArcelorMittal Gent”. This removes any possible ambiguity. Davy added some more changes: a) “Upon” was changed into “on”, which, I agree, sounds better. b) “Summarized” became “summarised”, since it is the habit of using British spelling instead of American spelling. c)

My wordy phrase “studies about reports of environmental effects” became “environmental impact studies”.

d) Davy also changed “a system of environmental protection” into “an environmental management system”. e) The sentence “The challenges become tougher as environmental legislation becomes stricter” was turned into a more active challenge with the same subject as the sentence before this one, and then both sentence were linked together. The result was: “They are endlessly seeking a balance between economics and ecology and face tougher challenges as environmental legislation becomes stricter.” f)

He also adapted some vocabulary: “find” became “strike” and “concerns” became “interests” in the last sentence.

Eventually, this text was published on the internet: A sustained balance between economic, ecological and social concerns An integrated steel plant that produces high-quality coated steel strip from coal and iron ore inevitably has a major impact upon the environment. ArcelorMittal Gent's management takes great interest in environmental responsibility, and took the decision in 1992 to coordinate all environment-related activities through a dedicated environmental department. Employees there are concerned full-time with environmental issues. The mission of the environmental department can be summarised as follows:      

Developing an environmental policy for the plant with the objective to continuously reduce its impact on the environment. Monitoring compliance with legislation, and anticipating of new legislation. Seeking applications with a lower environmental impact for our residual materials, with the emphasis on recycling. Applying for the requisite licences, supporting environmental impact studies etc. Communication with the authorities, neighbouring communities, etc. Maintaining fauna and flora on our sites.

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT – ANNEXES 

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Assuring completion of these tasks within an environmental management system that is compliant with the international ISO 14001 standard.

Staff of the environmental department have a job that is both satisfying and demanding. They are endlessly seeking a balance between economics and ecology and face tougher challenges as environmental legislation becomes stricter. Consider, for example, the issues of fine dust, greenhouse gases, and restrictions on SO 2 and NOx emissions. For each of these problems, a solution must be found which benefits the environment without endangering the company's competitiveness. ArcelorMittal Gent must therefore strike a sustainable balance between economic, ecological and social interests.

4.1.2 Writing new texts a) In Dutch Convertoraumatisering: de volgende stap In de convertor worden schroot en vloeibaar ruwijzer omgezet in vloeibaar staal door zuivere zuurstof te blazen op het ruwijzerbad. Daarbij worden koolstof en onzuiverheden verbrand, die in de vorm van slak op het staalbad drijven. Daarna wordt de convertor gedraaid naar afgietzijde en vloeit het staal door het tapgat in een staalpan. Zodra het staal uitgegoten is, wordt de convertor naar de andere kant gekanteld en wordt de slak langs de convertormond uitgegoten. Bij de eerste stap van het convertorproces, namelijk het laden van schroot en ruwijzer in de convertor, toont het ruwijzer- en schrootmodel aan de kraandrijver hoeveel er van alle inputelement geladen moet worden. De ladingsberekening stuurt het blazen van de convertor grotendeels automatisch. Door ook het afgieten te automatiseren, hebben we bij ArcelorMittal Gent een nieuwe en belangrijke stap gezet met het oog op meer efficiëntie en een hogere productiviteit. Afgieten wordt slakvrij… De uitdaging bij het afgieten bestaat erin om het staal zoveel mogelijk te scheiden van de slak. Klassiek werd het staal in een staalpan gegoten en de slak in een slakkenkuip. Om het proces te verbeteren, maken we nu ook gebruik van een restkuip, die zich naast de staalpan op de staalwagen onder de convertor bevindt. Hoe gaat slakvrij afgieten in zijn werk? De convertor, die vloeibaar staal en slak bevat, wordt gekipt met een bedieningshendel. Eerst stroomt een bovenste laag slak, de voorloopslak, in de restkuip. Als de hellingsgraad van de convertor 80° bereikt en er staal uit de tapkraan komt, verrijdt de staalwagen zodat het midden van de staalpan onder de tapstraal komt. De staalwagen volgt automatisch de beweging van de tapstraal naarmate de convertor meer gekipt wordt. Als de weging op de staalwagen 270 ton aangeeft, verrijdt de staalwagen zodat de tapstraal aan de rand van de staalpan komt. Niet veel later, op een moment dat door een model berekend wordt, rijdt de staalwagen verder zodat de restkuip onder de tapstraal terechtkomt om een mengsel van staal en naloopslak op te vangen. Zodra er enkel nog slak in de convertor zit, wordt die rechtgezet en wordt de overblijvende slak via de convertormond in de derde kuip, de slakkenkuip, uitgegoten. Slakvrij afgieten biedt veel voordelen. Het is immers niet meer nodig om af te slakken achteraf. Dat verkort de doorlooptijd, dringt energie- en staalverliezen terug en vermindert het aantal kraanmanipulaties. … en automatisch! Het afgietproces wordt aangestuurd door een PLC (Programmable Logic Controller). Dat is een processor die werkt op basis van input afkomstig van sensoren, metingen, data van een procescomputer enzovoort. De PLC in de staalfabriek krijgt input van:   

de bedieningsknoppen van de convertorman de hoek van de convertor de positie van de staalwagen

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNIATION AT ARCELORMITTAL GENT – ANNEXES    

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het gewicht van de staalkuip en de restkuip Ferrotron-metingen ConFloWa-data temperatuurdata van een pyrometer

Op basis van die gegevens zorgt de PLC ervoor dat de staalwagen automatisch meebeweegt, dat de convertor in de juiste hoek gekipt staat en dat alle gegevens worden weergegeven op een WinCCscherm voor de operatoren. Wanneer we het vloeibare staal van de convertor in een staalpan gieten, is het de bedoeling dat de tapstraal in het midden van de staalpan terechtkomt. Om de staalwagen (waarop de staalpan staat) automatisch goed te positioneren, zijn twee coördinaten nodig: de hoek van de convertor en de positie van de staalwagen.

De ideale hellingshoek van de convertor In een gekantelde convertor ontstaat een hoogteverschil tussen de convertormond en het niveau van staal en slak. Dat hoogteverschil noemen we de vrijboord (“freeboard”). Aftappen is een compromis zoeken: enerzijds zorgt een kleine vrijboord ervoor dat we het staal snel uitgieten, anderzijds lopen we dan het risico dat staal en slak uit de convertormond stromen. Met een grote vrijboord kan je dat risico vermijden, maar die heeft een negatieve invloed op de efficiëntie en de productiviteit. Op het einde van het aftappen kan er immers nog staal in de convertor achterblijven.

Om de ideale hellingsgraad van de convertor te bepalen, gebruikt de staalfabriek een mobiel lasertoestel (Ferrotron) dat de inhoud van de convertor in 3D berekent. Dat gebeurt dagelijks, omdat de vorm van de convertor binnenin continu verandert door slijtage van het vuurvaste materiaal.


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De Ferrotron genereert tijdens het afgietproces de volgende curve:

De onderste groene lijn, de maximumcurve, geeft de hoek aan met een minimale vrijboord en dus met een maximale ferrostatische druk. Het is daarentegen niet aangewezen om die curve voortdurend te volgen: als de convertor continu zou draaien, zou dat een te zware belasting voor de motoren betekenen. Daarom zijn er pauzes tussen de kipbewegingen, waarbij de bovenste groene lijn de minimumhoek bepaalt. Op een touch screen ziet de operator die curven, naast andere gegevens over tonnages. Door extra slijtage in de convertor of door zeer dikke of lichte slak is het niet helemaal uitgesloten dat er toch slak of staal over de convertormond stroomt. Daarom heeft de afdeling industriële automatisering en meettechniek het programma ConFloWa (Converter Flood Watcher) ontwikkeld, dat waarneemt of er al dan niet over de convertormond wordt gegoten. Op een beeld afkomstig van een camera die op de convertormond gericht staat, wordt het aantal heldere pixels geteld. Het resultaat wordt doorgestuurd naar de PLC en bij een te hoog niveau wordt de convertor automatisch wat meer opgetrokken. Een ander systeem om datzelfde probleem te detecteren bestaat uit een pyrometer. Dat toestel meet de temperatuur van het oppervlak waarop het gericht is. Als er geen staal of slak over de convertormond gaat, meet de pyrometer de temperatuur van de muur onder de convertor, die laag is. Als er wel staal of slak verspild wordt, meet de pyrometer de temperatuur van het staal of slak, die hoog is. Ook die gegevens worden doorgestuurd naar de PLC, waardoor onmiddellijk kan worden ingegrepen. Een verhaal van én-én De convertorautomatisering levert meer dan één bonus op. De efficiëntie en productiviteit van de staalfabriek zijn verhoogd doordat het proces nauwkeuriger en op de optimale manier wordt gestuurd. Daarnaast mag je ook de grote winst op veiligheidsvlak niet onderschatten. Tijdens het blaasproces bereikt het vloeibare staal een temperatuur van meer dan 1.600°. Dankzij de automatisering van het proces zullen medewerkers in de toekomst minder vaak in de directe omgeving van de convertor hoeven te komen.

b) Translation into English Convertor Automation: the next step In the BOF vessel, scrap and hot metal are converted into liquid steel by blowing pure oxygen onto the liquid steel bath. In the process, carbon and impurities are burnt, which then turn into slag floating on top of the liquid steel. Afterwards, the convertor is tilted to the other side, and the slag is poured into the slag pot via the vessel mouth. During the first stage of the process, when the vessel is being loaded with scrap and hot metal, a mathematical model indicates to the crane driver what quantities of all input elements need to be charged. These calculations largely coordinate the blowing of the vessel. By also automating the slag


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removal process, ArcelorMittal Gent makes a new and important move in the direction of greater efficiency and higher productivity. Tapping becomes slag free… Where tapping is concerned, the challenge the steel shop faces is to separate slag from steel as much as possible. Basically, steel is being poured into a steel ladle, and slag into a slag pot. However, to improve the process, the steel shop now also uses a reststeel pot, which is placed next to the steel ladle on the transfer car underneath the BOF vessel. How does slag free tapping work? The vessel, which contains liquid steel and slag, is being tipped over by means of a stick. First, the upper layer of slag is poured into the reststeel pot. As soon as the angle of the vessel reaches 80° and steel is being poured from the vessel, the transfer car automatically moves so that the centre of the steel ladle is positioned under the tap. When the scales on the transfer car indicate a weight of 270 tonnes, the steel car moves so that the tap is positioned right next to the brim of the steel ladle. Shortly afterwards, at a moment fixed by a mathematical model, the transfer car moves until the tap is located above the reststeel pot, which catches a mixture of slag and steel. Finally, when only slag is left in the vessel, the vessel is tilted to the other side to pour the slag into the slag pot via the vessel mouth. Slag free tapping offers many advantages, as it is no longer necessary to remove slag afterwards. This shortens the lead time, reduces energy and steel losses and diminishes the number of crane movements. … and automatic! The tapping process is controlled by a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), a processor that operates on the basis of input from sensors, measurements, data from a processing computer etc. In particular, the PLC in the steel shop receives input from:       

The controls operated by the vessel operator The angle of the vessel The position of the steel wagon The weight of the steel ladle and the reststeel pot Ferrotron measurements ConFloWa data Temperature data from a pyrometer

Basing itself on these data, the PLC takes care that the steel ladle moves along with the angle of the vessel, that the angle of the vessel is optimal at all times and that all data are transferred to a WinCC touch screen for the operator. When the liquid steel is being poured from the BOF vessel into the steel ladle, it should end up right in the middle of the steel ladle. So as to position the steel wagon (upon which the steel ladle is placed) automatically, two coordinates are required: the angle of the vessel and the position of the steel wagon.


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The ideal vessel angle When a vessel is toppled, a difference in height is created between the vessel mouth and the level of steel and slag. This difference in height is called freeboard. Tapping comes down to finding a compromise: on the one hand, a small freeboard enables swift tapping, on the other hand, we then risk losing slag or steel via the vessel mouth. Leaving a larger freeboard could avoid this problem, but this has a negative influence on efficiency and productivity, since after tapping, some steel may still be left in the vessel.

To determine the ideal angle of the vessel, the steel shop uses a mobile laser, called Ferrotron, which calculates the content of the vessel in three dimensions. This is being done on a daily basis, since the inside shape of the vessel continually changes as the heat-resistant layer is subject to wear. During tapping, the Ferrotron generates this curve:

The lower green line, the maximum curve, indicates the angle that entails minimal freeboard and, consequently, maximal ferrostatic pressure. However, it is not recommended to continually follow this curve: if the vessel is tipped over constantly, the drivers might become overburdened. Therefore, pauses between tipping movements are inserted, the minimal angle being determined by the upper green curve. On a touch screen, the operator can follow these curves along with other information about tonnages. Still, in case of extra wear in the vessel or exceptionally thick or light slag, it is not entirely excluded that some slag or steel may flow over the mouth of the vessel. Therefore, the department of industrial automation and measuring technology (IAM) has developed the ConFloWa programme (Converter Flow Watcher), which detects whether or not slag or steel is flowing over the mouth of the vessel. On


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an image coming from a camera which is aimed at the vessel mouth, the number of bright pixels is counted. The result is passed on to the PLC, which tilts the converter up again as soon as the number of bright pixels is too high. Another system that detects this problem consists of a pyrometer, an appliance that measures the temperature of the surface it is aimed at. If no slag or steel is floating over the vessel mouth, the pyrometer measures the temperature of the wall underneath the vessel, which is low. If slag or steel is poured over the mouth, the pyrometer measures the temperature of the steel or slag, which is high. These data are also transferred to the PLC, which makes it possible to interfere immediately. An and-and story Converter automation results in more than one bonus. Both the efficiency and the productivity of the steel shop are increased, since the process is controlled more precisely. What‟s more, the gains in the field of safety are substantial. During the oxygen blowing process, the liquid steel may reach a temperature of more than 1,600 degrees. Thanks to the automation of the process, employees will no longer need to come near the vessel very often.

4.2 Articles for 1 4.2.1 Taking and writing out interviews a) In the form of an interview Met “Ik Kyoto” milieuvriendelijk naar het werk In 2009 zijn we massaal op de fiets gesprongen, goed voor ruim 1 miljoen kilometer van en naar ArcelorMittal Gent.

Gino Rombaut, Marc Goossens, Eric Penny, Michel Leber en Rudy van Nieuland van de regeneratie koudwalserij brengen “Ik Kyoto” in praktijk.

In mei, tijdens de Ik Kyoto-campagne, legden 1.038 fietsers zo‟n 230.000 km af. Ook carpoolen is in: momenteel staan 104 werknemers geregistreerd als carpoolers, maar in totaal zijn het er ongetwijfeld nog meer. Bij de regeneratie van de koudwalserij vonden we vier doorwinterde fietsers: Marc Goossens, Eric Penny, Gino Rombaut en Rudy van Nieuland, en een fervente carpooler: Michel Leber. We peilden naar hun ervaringen. Marc, Eric, Gino en Rudy, zijn jullie fervente fietsers? Gino: “Toen ik in mei vorig jaar in de ploeg kwam, merkte ik dat iedereen fietste. Ik voelde me dan ook moreel verplicht om de fiets te nemen (lacht). Ik kom uit Uitbergen en leg zo‟n 30 km af, de verste afstand van iedereen. Ondertussen is mijn conditie er al flink op vooruitgegaan.” Eric: “Ik fiets altijd, behalve als het echt té hard regent. Ik kom uit Lokeren en fiets een twintigtal kilometer naar ArcelorMittal Gent.” Fietsen jullie anders ook in je vrije tijd?


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Marc: “Ik beken: ik ben een echte petrolhead. Fietsen zei me vroeger niets, maar de fietsvergoeding overtuigde me. Nu probeer ik zoveel mogelijk vanuit Sleidinge (18 km) naar het werk te fietsen, al lukt het niet altijd wegens mijn gezin.” Gino: “Ik ben eerder een terrasjesfietser, op zondag rijd ik weleens van trappist naar trappist (lacht).” Rudy: “Ik doe een serieuze poging om sportief te zijn. De auto neem ik enkel wanneer het echt niet anders kan. Ik fiets zo goed als altijd naar het werk, maar het is dan ook maar 6 km ver, vanuit Wachtebeke.” Jullie rijden allemaal met een professionele fiets. Hoe belangrijk is degelijk materiaal? Marc: “Een koersfiets heb je zeker nodig. Maar het hoeft niet per se veel geld te kosten: de mijne is er één die nog bij de buurvrouw op zolder stond en die ik op punt heb gezet. Ook belangrijk is goede kledij, vooral een goede broek. ‟s Nachts zorg je best voor een fluorescerend vestje.” Rudy: “Ik rijd met een mountainbike. Die heeft het voordeel dat de banden breed zijn en je dus minder gemakkelijk slipt.” Zijn jullie al in de problemen gekomen onderweg? Gino: “De allereerste keer dat ik met de fiets ging, had ik het al zitten: platte band. Tot overmaat van ramp had ik geen materiaal bij, behalve een pomp die niet paste. Gevolg: ik moest 11 km te voet afleggen. Toen besefte ik dat degelijk materiaal broodnodig is.” Eric: “Bij mij vallen de problemen goed mee: één keer is mijn pedaal afgevallen, dat is alles.” Marc: “Ik ben ooit eens in een vreselijke storm terechtgekomen. Ik reed net langs de R4, met open velden rondom en dus heel veel wind. Toen ik veel later dan gewoonlijk thuiskwam, zag ik eruit als een renner die net Parijs-Roubaix had gereden: vol modder en zweet. Dat wil ik niet nog eens meemaken.” Is het veilig om naar ArcelorMittal Gent te fietsen? Eric: “Voor mij valt de weg heel goed mee: ik fiets door bossen en langs water. Enkel het stuk op de weg naar Wachtebeke is onveilig.” Rudy: “Ik moet ook langs die provincieweg: het is een tweevaksbaan met veel verkeer en nauwe fietspaden. De provincie doet niet voldoende inspanningen om die weg veiliger te maken. Als je fietsen promoot, moet je ook zorgen voor veiligheid.” Welke voordelen biedt fietsen, behalve de fietsvergoeding? Marc: “Je ziet soms heel mooie landschappen. Ik heb bijvoorbeeld al vaak herten gezien langs het spaarbekken.” Gino: “Het is een aanrader voor iedereen. Je komt thuis, je neemt een douche en je bent een nieuwe mens.” Eric: “Fietsen is een vorm van sport. En het is veel beter om in de natuur te gaan fietsen dan om bijvoorbeeld in een fitnesszaal te gaan – hoe heet het? – spinnen.” Rudy: “Dat klopt. En het milieu is uiteraard ook een bezorgdheid. Ik zou het bijna een schande noemen als je binnen een fietsbare zone van 10 km woont en toch voortdurend de auto neemt.” Michel, jij carpoolt naar het werk. Doe je dat ook voor het milieu? Michel: “Het milieu speelt zeker een rol. Ik woon in Heist, op 50 km afstand van ArcelorMittal Gent. Samen rijden spaart dus 100 km per dag uit. Alle beetjes helpen voor het milieu! Daarnaast bespaar ik heel wat benzinekosten én is het aangenaam: we wisselen telkens af van chauffeur. De ander kan dus slapen, naar muziek luisteren, een dutje doen… Er wordt ook heel wat gebabbeld. Niet enkel over het werk! (lacht) Hoe ben je op het idee gekomen? Michel: “Mijn eerste carpoolpartner, Marc Mortier, kende ik van het uitgaansleven in de streek. We besloten samen te rijden. Het klikte en we zijn vrienden geworden. Kort nadat Marc met pensioen


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ging, hoorde ik dat er nog een West-Vlaming op de site werkt. Hij bleek in Zeebrugge te wonen: vlakbij. Toen ik het hem vroeg, zag hij het meteen zitten om samen te rijden.” Zijn er ook nadelen aan verbonden? Michel: “Je bent wel afhankelijk van elkaar natuurlijk, soms moet je even op elkaar wachten. Ook heb je niet altijd dezelfde smaak wat muziek betreft, zoals mijn huidige partner (lacht). Maar dat weegt écht niet op tegen de voordelen! Wist je dat … carpoolen je fiscale voordelen oplevert? Als carpooler kan je een fiscale vrijstelling op het woonste werkverkeer ontvangen voor maximum de prijs van een 1 klas treinabonnement op weekbasis voor je woon-werktraject. Je krijgt bovendien ook een carpoolparkeerkaart, waarmee je op de voorbehouden carpoolparkings overal op de site kan parkeren. Laat je dus registreren! Dat kan aan de balie van de dienst bezoldigingen, eerste verdieping administratiegebouw, elke werkdag van 7u30 tot 11u.

b) In a full text > Formule 1 Creativiteit in tijden van crisis: fietsenstalling uit schroot “Als er geen geld is voor een fietsenstalling in het plakkenpark, dan maken we er zelf één,” moeten Eddy Van Wynsberghe, Ignace Henderick, John Meyvaert en Adriaan Laenen uit de warmwalserij gedacht hebben. Prompt besloten ze zelf een stalling in elkaar te boksen, met materiaal dat in de fabriek voor het grijpen lag.

Eddy Van Wynsberghe, Ignace Henderick, John Meyaert en Adriaan Laenen staken zelf de handen uit de mouwen en bouwden een nieuwe fietsenstalling uit schroot.

De nieuwe fietsenstalling was een goedgekeurd Formule 1-idee rond arbeidstevredenheid, maar door de crisis werd het project kort na aanvang stopgezet. Dus besloot de ploeg van John Meyvaert zelf in actie te treden: de betonlaag was immers al gegoten. De ploegleden kregen meteen het fiat van hun ploegmeestergast en lijnverantwoordelijke, die snel warm liepen voor het project. Veel van de ploegleden zijn handige Harry‟s, die graag de handen uit de mouwen steken. Een plan voor de fietsenstalling was er niet. De constructie kreeg vorm in functie van het materiaal dat gevonden werd: schroot dat in normale omstandigheden naar de convertor gaat. Ongeveer 500 kg materiaal vond zo een tweede bestemming. Zowat twee weken na aanvang van de bouw stond hij er al te blinken: een fraaie metalen schuur, donkerrood en groen geverfd, passend bij het rood van de nieuwe burelen van het plakkenpark. Dat het uit schroot is gemaakt, zou je nooit kunnen raden. De stalling dient in de eerste plaats voor fietsen die in het plakkenpark rondrijden. Maar hij biedt nog andere voordelen: bestellingen en leveringen van het centraal magazijn worden er beschermd tegen weer en wind en plakkenmonsters voor het lab worden er in een kist (uiteraard ook uit gerecycleerd


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materiaal) bewaard. Dat komt dan weer de veiligheid ten goede, want vroeger moesten de monsters in de fabriek opgehaald worden. De constructie is oerdegelijk en weerstaat met gemak de zwaarste storm: de stalling zit stevig in de betonlaag vastgehecht. Misschien een tip voor andere afdelingen?

4.2.2 Translating texts from the Group Amerika Nieuwe CEO bij Vlak-Koolstofstaal Zuid-Amerika José Armando Campos treedt vanaf 31 maart 2009 af als CEO van Vlak-Koolstof Zuid-Amerika. Benjamin Baptista volgt hem op als Vice President en CEO van Vlak-Koolstofstaal Zuid-Amerika. 20.03.2009 Europa Zesde vergadering van het ESTEP-Stuurcomité Michel Wurth, lid van de Group Management Board (GMB), is voorzitter van de zesde vergadering van het Europese Staal Technologie Platform (ESTEP). De gesprekken gaan vooral over nieuwe, duurzame staalinitiatieven en er werd beslist om verder te gaan met het ULCOS-project (Ultra Low CO2 Steelmaking). 05.03.2009 Corporate Responsibility award voor ArcelorMittal Prijedor ArcelorMittal Prijedor (Bosnië en Herzegovina) haalde de tweede plaats in de categorie „maatschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid, inzet voor de gemeenschap en relaties tussen werknemers‟. Jaarlijks worden prijzen uitgereikt door de plaatselijke regering en de Kamer van Koophandel. 25.03.2009 Internationaal Eerste vergadering van het Paritaire Gezondheids- en Veiligheidscomité in 2009 Het Paritaire Gezondheids- en Veiligheidscomité van ArcelorMittal houdt zijn eerste vergadering van 2009 in Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico. 03.03.2009 Wereldwijde productie van ruwstaal in februari 2009 Uit cijfers van Worldsteel blijkt dat in februari 2009 84 miljoen ton ruwstaal geproduceerd is, wat een daling van 22% betekent in vergelijking met februari 2008. 20.03.2009 Jaarrapport 2008 De groep publiceert de officiële versie van het Jaarrapport 2008, beschikbaar op www.arcelormittal.com > Investors & Shareholders > Reports & Documents > Annual Reports 31.03.2009 Azië ArcelorMittal India stuurt 18 jongeren op technische training Achttien jongeren zijn geselecteerd voor een technische opleiding in samenwerking met de Nettur Technical Training Foundation (Nettur Stichting voor Technische Opleidingen of NTTF). Het doel van het project is om de lokale gemeenschap nieuwe opleidingsmogelijkheden en technische vermogen te bieden. 23.03.2009 Vergaderingen met klanten in het Midden Oosten ArcelorMittal organiseert twee vergaderingen in Dubai en Amman om de binding met klanten in het Midden-Oosten te versterken. Het zijn de eerste in een reeks interactievergaderingen met klanten die actief zijn in het Midden-Oosten en rond de Middellandse zee. 02.04.2009 Meer informatie vind je op www.myarcelormittal.com


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4.2.3 Rewriting texts from other departments Groenten en fruit, een onmisbaar duo de

Ondertussen zijn we al toe aan een 4 artikel in onze reeks over de actieve voedingsdriehoek. In het vorige nummer behandelden we de graanproducten en aardappelen. Nu focussen we op twee andere groepen, namelijk de groentengroep en de fruitgroep. Waarom hebben we deze groepen nodig? Groenten leveren enkelvoudige en meervoudige koolhydraten, voedingsvezels, mineralen, vitamines en vocht. Afwisseling is heel belangrijk, want niet alle groenten bevatten dezelfde vitamines en mineralen. Groenten eten we eigenlijk nooit te veel. In totaal zouden we er dagelijks 300 gram van moeten eten. Een ideale verdeling is 100 gram rauwkost en 200 gram bereide groenten. Bij de broodmaaltijden of als tussendoortje kan je rauwkost eten. De warme bevat dus best steeds een ruime portie van 200 grambereide groenten. Let hierbij wel op dat je het gebruik van vet (bereidingsvet en room) beperkt. Pas ook op met groentesoepen en blikgroenten: ze hebben vaak een hoger zoutgehalte. Fruit levert (vooral enkelvoudige) koolhydraten, vitaminen, mineralen en voedingsvezels. Groenten en fruit onderscheiden zich van elkaar door de aanwezigheid van verschillende soorten en hoeveelheden voedingsstoffen. Daarom moeten we dagelijks zowel groenten als fruit eten.Fruit kan je als tussendoortje, als broodbeleg en als dessert eten. De beste keuze in deze groep Je eet best verse groenten of diepvriesgroenten zonder room of saustoevoegingen. Wissel daarbij maximaal af. Wat fruit betreft, kies je liefst voor vers fruit of diepvriesfruit zonder toegevoegde suikers. Hoeveel hebben we nodig? Voor een gezonde voeding worden 300 gram groenten enminstens 2 stukken fruit of 250 gram aangeraden. Hoe doen we het in de praktijk? Gemiddeld eten mensen maar 145 gram groenten per dag. Aangezien je er best 300 gram van eet, is dit lang niet voldoende. Dit geldt voor alle bevolkings- en leeftijdsgroepen. Ook de gemiddelde fruitconsumptie is veel te laag. Die bedraagt amper 120 g per dag, terwijl de ondergrens van de aanbeveling 250 g of 2 stukken fruit is. Voor adolescenten bedraagt de aanbeveling voor fruitconsumptie minstens 375 gram per dag. Jongeren eten het minste groenten en fruit, hoewel net die groep beter meer fruit en groenten eet dan andere leeftijdsgroepen. Als je fruitsappen, groentesappen en groentesoepen meerekent, bedraagt de gemiddelde fruitconsumptie 176 gram per dag en de gemiddelde groenteconsumptie 246 gram per dag.

4.2.4 Other: reportage Gezondheids- en Veiligheidsdag Crisis of geen crisis, veiligheid gaat boven alles. Dat was de kernboodschap van de Gezondheids- en Veiligheidsdag, die dit jaar plaatsvond op dinsdag 28 april.


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Gerrit De Decker toont hoe je correct tilt: door de knieën buigen, hand op de knie en rechte rug.

Dat het gezondheids- en veiligheidsdag was, merkte je al bij het binnenkomen: iedereen kreeg een gratis stuk fruit aangeboden. ‟s Middags zag je in de cafetaria ook een infostand over gezonde voeding en kon je in het restaurant een extra gezonde maaltijd krijgen. Het échte startsignaal werd op de startvergadering gegeven, en wel door CEO Lakshmi Mittal zelf. In een videoboodschap benadrukte hij dat we al goed op weg zijn in onze Journey to Zero, maar dat er nog werk aan de winkel is. “De gezondheids- en veiligheidsdag is belangrijk,” zei hij, “maar het is slechts één van de vele middelen om het uiteindelijke doel te bereiken: het veiligste staalbedrijf ter wereld worden.” Mittal gaf ook een woordje uitleg bij het thema van dit jaar: “Leading the Journey”, wat een combinatie is van “Leading by example” (het goede voorbeeld geven) en “Journey to Zero”. Vervolgens gaf Peter Destexhe, het hoofd van de veiligheidsdienst, een overzicht van de veiligheidsresultaten van het afgelopen jaar. Hij gaf daarbij concrete voorbeelden van ongevallen waaruit belangrijke lessen kunnen worden getrokken. Geert Steyaert overliep alle activiteiten van de dag en CEO Marc Vereecke sloot de startvergadering af met een slot- en dankwoord. Samen met de andere leden van het managementcomité woonde hij daarna veiligheidsgesprekken bij in de fabriek.

Manoeuvreren met een heftruck: niet van de poes!

Letterlijk één van de meest in het oog springende activiteiten was de brandblusoefening. Je kon zelf ondervinden hoe je brandende vaste stoffen, vloeistoffen en gassen best te lijf gaat met een brandblusapparaat. “Kalm blijven en niet panikeren, dat is het belangrijkste,” benadrukte het brandweerteam. De rookpluim was in ieder geval van ver te zien. Vlakbij vonden iets intensievere workshops plaats: Start to Run en de Fit-o-meter, met begeleiding van professionele licentiaten lichamelijke opvoeding. Beide activiteiten vielen erg in de smaak. Nog voor sportieve werknemers was er de fietseninspectie, waar fietsen hersteld werden en eventueel van een gravering voorzien. In de dompelverzinklijnen liep er een wedstrijd voor de veiligste heftruckchauffeur. Het parcours was niet van de poes, al is het maar omdat een vorkheftruck bijvoorbeeld helemaal anders draait dan een auto. Coördinator Jean-Pierre Devos merkte op dat er twee belangrijke aspecten zijn: ten eerste is er


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uiteraard de veiligheid, en ten tweede moet de chauffeur altijd één stap vooruit denken bij het manoeuvreren. Behendigheid en snelheid, daar draaide het om.

Ook zonder de podcasts van Evy Gruyaert wordt er tijdens de start-to-run sessies enthousiast meegelopen.

Minstens even interessant waren de sessies tiltechnieken. “Wanneer ik iets optil, is het intussen een automatisme geworden om door mijn knieën te buigen, mijn hand op mijn knie te leggen en het zware voorwerp tegen m‟n borst te houden. Maar het is moeilijk om andere mensen te motiveren dat ook te doen, vooral als ze (nog) geen rugklachten hebben”, zegt Gerrit De Decker, technicus beveiliging haven en tilcoördinator. In de projectiezaal van het administratiegebouw kon je terecht voor een sessie over stress. Je kreeg er info over de oorzaken van stress, belangrijke factoren, wat een burn-out is enzovoort. Uiteraard werden ook tips gegeven om stress en burn-outs te voorkomen. Naast stress werden ook de thema‟s „overgewicht‟ en „actief en gezond vermageren‟ uitvoerig besproken tijdens andere sessies in de vergaderzaal.

Tijdens de spoedcursus brandblussen staan deelnemers voor hete vuren.

Ook in de afdelingen zelf werden interessante activiteiten georganiseerd. In de warmwalserij bijvoorbeeld konden werknemers in kleine groepjes deelnemen aan allerlei wedstrijden, gaande van “zoek de veiligheidsfouten in dit filmpje” tot “duid de anomalieën in deze kamer aan” en “verplaats dit stuk beton van de ene naar de andere hoek achter het hek op een gezonde manier”. Onder leiding van Gratien Leyseele van de veiligheidsdienst werd er in post 7b een oefening georganiseerd om crisiscentrum 2 op te richten. In geval van een crisis verzamelt het crisisteam van wacht normaal gezien in crisiscentrum 1, in het gebouw van de veiligheidsdienst. Maar in bepaalde gevallen, wanneer er bijvoorbeeld een brand is en de rookpluim in de richting van crisiscentrum 1 waait, moet dat team kunnen uitwijken naar een andere locatie: crisiscentrum 2. Gratien demonstreerde onder andere hoe je er de telefoons vlot aanschakelt en welke andere communicatiemiddelen er voorhanden zijn.


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Gratis fietsenherstelling en gravures voor iedereen die wil.

Daarnaast waren er nóg een heleboel initiatieven en thema‟s:  Aandacht voor gehoorbescherming via de infoschermen  Bespreking van de gouden regels en de grote risico‟s  Bespreking van de veiligheidsstops  Risicoanalyses & TPM-pijler 8 cases  Veiligheidsgesprekken en -waarnemingen  Orde en netheid  Relatie peter-petekind  Opleiding “Interventieploegen” evacuatie administratiegebouw  Quiz over de gewijzigde verkeersreglementen vanaf 2000 (door de politie van Gent) We kunnen alleen maar besluiten dat de Gezondheids- en Veiligheidsdag opnieuw een succes was. Aan alle organisatoren, medewerkers en deelnemers: bedankt! Wist je dat … een burn-out een psychologische term is voor het gevoel opgebrand te zijn? Wie een burn-out heeft kan geen energie of motivatie meer vinden voor de bezigheden op het werk.

4.3 Press overview 4.3.1 Summary De Gentenaar: “Traffic in Port collapses” The transfer in the Ghent Port has dropped significantly during the first five months of 2009. This is mainly due to diminished production at ArcelorMittal. From January until May, only 1.6 billion tonnes or 78% less iron ore have been supplied. The steel producer has a large share in the port figures. st However, there has been a steep rise in the amount of coleseed (+100%). As from July 1 onwards, fuel producers are obliged to add bio diesel and bio ethanol to the fuel. This has its positive effects already.

4.3.2 Translation De Morgen: “Metallo’s disturb the shareholders’ meeting of ArcelorMittal” Luxemburg – Lakshmi Mittal, CEO of ArcelorMittal, expressed his pessimism yesterday at the shareholders‟ assembly of the world‟s biggest steel concern. He stated that “this is probably the most serious crisis since the second world war”. The words of the Indian, who is otherwise always optimistic, indicate that the future is not quite rosy for the steel giant. It looked as if a war was going on outside, in front of the entrance of the stately head office of ArcelorMittal in Luxembourg. Some 1,500 French, Belgian and Luxembourg trade union activists


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expressed their displeasure with the temporary closure of most of the European blast furnaces of ArcelorMittal. “Who can guarantee that this is not the forerunner of a permanent closure?” one metallo of the ArcelorMittal plant at Florange (France) asked himself rhetorically. The demonstration got out of hand when one group of demonstrators broke the windows of the headquarter, attacked the building with smoke bombs and stormed the front door. The Luxembourg police, who were present in large numbers, prevented them from entering the building. The reception, which was demanded by the trade unions, didn‟t happen. Hansen leaves management The shareholders‟ meeting noticed little from the noise in the street, apart from the fire alarm, which rang three times and disturbed the voting. The shareholders agreed with the composition of the smaller board of directors with a large majority. Thus the last Belgian member of the Board, Pierre Hansen, disappears form the world‟s largest steel concern. The term of the managing director of Electrabel was not renewed. When he explained the annual report to the shareholders, Lakshmi Mittal was far more dejected than earlier. Up until now, he counted on the growth of the worldwide demand for steel during the second quarter. Yesterday, he said this will happen only in the third or the forth quarter. His prognosis that the steel market will decrease this year by 15 to 20 percent is also far more pessimistic than what was believed by the authoritative organization Worldsteel. Still, Mittal remains convinced that the closure of 16 out of 25 European blast furnaces is “a temporary measure”. “But when we will reopen the installations, we will start with the most cost-effective ones,” said the managing director.

Internal and external communication at ArcelorMittal Gent

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