In partnership with Maisons Confort France (MCF), ArcelorMittal, together with 15 other companies, has brought a new, environmentally friendly housing solution to the market – the MCF 2020. As well as being a zero-emission house, the MCF 2020 generates enough energy to fuel both the house and an electric car. An innovative example of what steel can do in the construction market not only in the future, but also today.

In the video, one happy resident explains why steel was the perfect choice for her and her family: “we chose a house of steel because of the shapes – its rounded roofs, the shape of the doors and windows, and the shapes of the room. And this wasn’t even an expensive house, compared to traditional houses.”

Steel as a building material for housing is more environmentally friendly, more cost-efficient and safer than traditional building materials. The strength of steel also allows for innovative design and architecture. It is also resistant to earthquakes, and pre-fabrication of the steel structure off-site means construction sites are cleaner and safer.

Architect (picture): F Jauvion - www.fredericjauvion.fr

Throughout ArcelorMittal, we encourage our most important resource – our people – to push boundaries, think creatively, and be pioneers by developing ideas and turning them into successful outcomes that help keep our company at the forefront of competitiveness.

We view innovation as a mindset that helps generate new ideas. From inventing engineering techniques and bringing revolutionary new steel products to the market, to helping communities and the environment by thinking big when it comes to social responsibility, and even down to the way we give our own workforce the chance to grow and exchange knowledge and ideas through ArcelorMittal University, innovation is at our very core.

Our research and development (R&D) team is the catalyst for many of our technological advances. In 2011, ArcelorMittal’s pioneering S-in motion concept won the Best Process Innovation category in American Metal Market's Awards for Steel Excellence. The techniques and designs we created, using the latest steel grades and manufacturing processes, enable carmakers to reduce the weight of modern five-door C-segment vehicle bodies by as much as 14% – the direct consequence of which is a dramatic reduction in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

Successful innovations such as S-in motion don’t happen by chance. “It is my profound belief that it is innovation that will determine winners and losers,” says Greg Ludkovsky, head of R&D at ArcelorMittal.

Staying on the cutting edge of innovations in the steel industry is crucial and, as such, we constantly look to push ourselves to strive to develop the next groundbreaking concept.

“We are well on the way to developing the next generation of unique products,” adds Ludkovsky.

R&D supports work in other areas of the company too, and pioneering steel products and solutions have been created that feature in some of the world’s most prominent engineering projects. New York City’s One World Trade Center has benefitted from ArcelorMittal’s ability to create the world’s largest beam blank, and we have developed some unique products and solutions that are integral to Venice’s vital flood defence system.

Beyond innovation in products

As well as helping grand projects, we also push boundaries in the way we approach corporate and social responsibility. In Romania, the ArcelorMittal Foundation has been collaborating with Habitat for Humanity to build affordable housing through an innovative construction design that results in low-cost, energy-efficient accommodation using a lightweight steel frame.

In Brazil, ArcelorMittal Tubar?o has pioneered new ways to make better use of by-products generated through production. About 800,000 tonnes of Linz-Donawitz slag are produced in the country every year, but we put a lot of resources into improving the quality of the waste material so that it can be sold and used as a building material. We have also used the slag to create around 360 artificial reefs in Brazil.

José Geraldo Cavalini Tardin, manager of internal infrastructure, ArcelorMittal Tubar?o, says: "Waste that would otherwise be sent to a landfill is being transformed into innovative new materials. We hope to replicate what's being done at other ArcelorMittal sites around the world."

And we strive to implement original thinking in one of the areas we take very seriously: learning. At one end of the scale are the leadership programmes, an integral part of our flagship ArcelorMittal University, which help identify and nurture potential managerial talent within the company. And at the grass-roots stage we look to make a positive impact on education in local communities, such as the ‘Transforming Tomorrow’ event run by ArcelorMittal Ostrava in Czech Republic, which asked secondary school students to think of innovative ways to persuade employees to wear required personal protective equipment.

From products to people, and from the top of the company right down to our community interactions, being innovative helps make us who we are.

“Most people think of innovation as new products. But it is much broader than that. It is innovation of products, innovation of processes, innovation in the systems we use, innovation in HR, in finance.”

Greg Ludkovsky, head of R&D

Mining is a core part of ArcelorMittal’s business. Building up our own mining assets and becoming self-sufficient in iron ore and coal are crucial not just because they are the raw materials for steelmaking, but also because they can generate growth in our business. It also allows us to increase significantly our supply of raw materials to the external international market.

"We are building a world class mining business: we have large iron ore resources, good project returns and a strong global team to execute our market-driven commercial strategy.”

Bill Scotting, chief executive, ArcelorMittal Mining

We are among the five largest mining companies in the world, and in 2012 we shipped 54.4 million tonnes of iron ore and 8.2 million tonnes of coal. Our goal is to produce 84 million tonnes of iron ore by 2015, with an increasing supply to customers in diverse markets.

In 2011, ArcelorMittal began to report financial results for mining as a separate part of the business, enabling us to make better operating decisions and optimise capital allocation for mining. In 2012, Ebitda was US$1.7bn, based on 28.8 million tonnes of iron ore and 5.1 million tonnes of coal shipped at market prices.

With operations all around the world, we are strategically positioned to ship materials to different markets, and our growth strategy involves both expansion of existing mines and developing untapped reserves. For example, at ArcelorMittal Mining Canada, in 2011-2012, a total of 2 million tonnes of iron ore was shipped, as part of a strategic trial, to new customers in China and the Middle East.

At the same time, we strive to improve our operating costs for business growth at an optimal capital cost per tonne of production. We have a relentless focus on cost control, through operational excellence across all assets, sharing and applying best practice, and focussing on labour productivity, maintenance and reliability.

New projects

ArcelorMittal’s 50% shareholding in Baffinland Iron Ore Mines in Canada, which contains 373 million tonnes as reserves, has consolidated our position as a significant iron ore producer now and in the future.

The acquisition of Baffinland is also important because it gives us access to a high-quality iron ore reserve. As a greenfield venture, we will work towards developing the Tier 1 iron ore deposit of the Mary River project, which is located in Canada’s Arctic.

The mine will yield a product of high grade direct shipping pellet, containing 66% Fe iron. We expect production capacity to be 3.5 million tonnes a year in 2015, as part of our early revenue phase for the project. 

We also have expansions under way at our other mines in Canada. With an annual production of 15 million tonnes, we account for 40% of the country’s iron ore production, and have successfully expanded concentrator capacity to achieve 24 million tonnes of annual production in 2013. In Brazil, we have expanded annual production at our Andrade mines to 3.5 million tonnes.

An achievement that we are particularly proud of is our iron ore greenfield project in Liberia, where we have rehabilitated a 240km railway line connecting our mines to the upgraded port and material-handling facilities at Buchanan. The first consignment of ore from the Liberian mines was shipped in September 2011, and reached an annual production of 4 million tonnes in 2012. Phase two of our Liberia operations have been approved, and we are expanding capacity through investing in a concentrator, to 15 million tonnes a year by 2015.

Safety in mines

It is crucial to our business success that we mine responsibly, meeting our commitments to the people and communities that are involved in our projects or are affected by them. Our first and foremost priority is to safeguard the health and safety of employees against the specific risks of a mine environment. We have made significant progress in our mines, bringing down the lost time injury frequency (LTIF) rate, which is the number of injuries that result in loss of work time per million hours worked, from 3.4 in 2008 to 2.42 in 2009, 1.53 in 2010 and 1.4 in 2011 and 0.7 in 2012.

The foundation of all our safety programmes is a culture of courageous leadership, which sets out clear expectations that everyone must take personal ownership of safety in their immediate work environment. Our goal is to have zero accidents, and it can only be achieved when every person at a mine has a proactive approach to safety.

“Every single person in our workforce has to become a safety leader. When people feel that they are accountable for their own safety as well as their co-workers’, then I think we would have reached a point at which we can say: we’ve made it for now, but let’s keep on pushing.”

Bill Scotting, chief executive, ArcelorMittal Mining

Mining responsibly

We are equally driven to ensure that our mining activities ensure sustainable development for local communities. We do so by developing local skills and infrastructure, which can foster economic activity in the long term. As one of a handful of companies who have moved into Liberia since the end of the country’s civil war, our commitment extends beyond the mining project to rehabilitate schools, hospitals and skills training for local people.

Our study of the biodiversity of the rainforest in Liberia’s Nimba mountains was the most comprehensive study ever undertaken in Liberia, and meets our promise to mine responsibly and sustainably without endangering regional ecosystems. Working on a greenfield mine in Liberia allowed us to embed opportunities for social development from the beginning, and we will carry this holistic approach to future projects.

ArcelorMittal’s portfolio of steel products and solutions is diverse, encompassing many sectors and industries. A major area in which the company has invested, and achieved, is one that has a direct impact on the everyday lives of billions of people across the globe – the automotive industry.

It is hard to underplay ArcelorMittal’s influence on commercial vehicle production. Our steel products – advanced high-strength, galvanised and coated materials – are present in around 20% of the world’s cars.

The industry is one in which steel has traditionally played a crucial role – and that looks set to continue thanks to advances in design led by the ArcelorMittal automotive division.

Jean-Luc Thirion, head of automotive product portfolio, global research and development, says: “One of the biggest challenges in automotive right now is cost-effective lightweighting. Many competing materials are looking to take over applications that have traditionally been made of steel, offering to provide lighter weight, better fuel efficiency and better performance.”

Making cars lighter

But through our pioneering S-in motion technology, we have enabled carmakers to reduce the weight of body-in-white and chassis of modern five-door C-segment vehicle bodies by as much as 19% – the direct consequence of which is a dramatic reduction in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

“We’ve shown that because of the greater strength and stiffness steel brings, we can actually produce solutions that are not only lighter than some of these other competing materials, we can do so with a much lower overall lifetime carbon footprint,” Thirion adds.

It is this innovation that keeps us at the forefront of car development. As an indication of how important we see the automotive industry for our company, more than half of our product research and development spend is invested into it.

We have developed products and techniques that have helped reduce the weight of cars while maintaining optimum performance. These include laser-welded blanks, in which different steel grades are welded together to create a component. Without laser-welded blanks, more steel would be required to produce the same part – meaning the finished vehicle would be heavier. Similarly, our tubular products division in Europe works closely with vehicle development, creating steel tubes to replace previously solid parts. This has become a vital way of reducing a car’s weight while also maintaining strength.

The investment in automotive is therefore significant, and so is the return. In 2010, the division recorded US$12.3bn revenue, and supplied 13.5 million tonnes of flat steel to the car industry.

Collaboration in research

Part of the reason for our market dominance is our investment in research and development (R&D), but the way we work with car manufacturers also has a major impact on our influence in the sector. We don’t just supply materials, we work in partnership with car producers to provide services and solutions, and have an integrated global management structure to support our automotive customers around the world.

Lou Schorsch, head of R&D and automotive, explains: “We complement our labs by locating scientists at plants and, most importantly, engineers at customer locations, not only in North America and Europe but also in Asia. This goes well beyond the standard practice of having technical service reps – at many key customers we now have many resident engineers on site involved in design work and material selection.”

A prime example of this is at Toyota’s design centre in Japan, where ArcelorMittal is the first non-Japanese steel company to have a materials engineer on site. As a result of this close co-operation with manufacturers, we are able to provide immediate and relevant solutions, and offer exceptional value – as well as ensure that our own automotive product developments remain at the forefront of industry needs.