ArcelorMittal zeroes in on waste

Sustainability tops the agenda at ArcelorMittal as the company acts to help create a more sustainable future for the steel industry and the environment. Achieving zero waste within the company is a key target.

As part of its group-wide sustainability focus ArcelorMittal has adopted 10 sustainability development outcomes, all of which contribute to ensuring that the production of steel, the use of resources, new product development, and the support of its people and their communities is achieved in the most sustainable way.

These outcomes are at the core of its new sustainable development framework that motivates action by its people from site to corporate level.

“Our 10 sustainable development outcomes were designed to ensure we manage to stay ahead of expectations, and also demonstrate our understanding that long-term success lies not only in creating shareholder value but also in actively contributing to society’s needs,” says ArcelorMittal Chairman and Chief Executive Lakshmi N Mittal.

The 10 outcomes are seen in the company as a strategic way to represent the material, social and environmental aspects of the business. They form the basis of an approach designed to also help avoid damaging disruptions to operations and create substantial value, both for stakeholders and shareholders.

The 10 outcomes are:

1. People: The company says that it makes sure the workforce is safe and healthy, committed to its success, and operates with integrity. Diversity is valued and every individual is respected and their potential developed.
2. Products: Commercial designers and manufacturers, as well as end-users choose steel for products that need strength and durability. They make that choice because they understand steel contributes to more sustainable lifestyles.
3. Infrastructure: Steel is the first-choice material for the governments and public bodies that commission and approve building and infrastructure projects, and the firms that design and construct them. They know steel is part of the answer, not part of the problem.
4. Resources: ArcelorMittal is a leader in building a more resource-efficient economy, and says it understands the technical, logistical and commercial challenges this represents.
5. Air, land and water: The company’s local communities and stakeholders trust it to share the vital resources of air, land and water, because ArcelorMittal operates responsibly and transparently, and has clearly improved its impacts.
6. Energy and carbon: ArcelorMittal develops innovative products that help other industries to reduce carbon emissions and drive carbon and energy improvements in steel production.
7. Supply chains: Suppliers are expected to live up to ArcelorMittal’s high standards because the company is committed to managing its supply chain responsibly, and is trusted to do so by its customers and stakeholders.
8. Community: ArcelorMittal says it is welcomed as a good neighbour because it actively engages at a local level, and makes a positive contribution to more resilient and thriving communities through its day-to-day operations as well as through thoughtful well-targeted investments.
9. Scientists and engineers: A healthy pipeline of well-trained and talented engineers, scientists and technicians, both for our own future, and for society as a whole are available.
10. Impact measurement: Finally, ArcelorMittal says it can show the value of its contribution to society, and its stakeholders understand and appreciate it.

Further highlighting ArcelorMittal’s sustainability credentials, the world’s most prestigious award programme for the circular economy, The Circulars, has recently highly commended the company for demonstrating leadership and innovation by applying circular economy principles to its business models.

By collaborating with internal experts, leading academics and its customers, ArcelorMittal is finding ways to make transformational changes in the way it does business, as it seeks to achieve its ambition of becoming a zero-waste company.

ArcelorMittal General Manager, Head of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainable Development Alan Knight says: “Being highly commended by The Circulars 2018 is a fantastic achievement and highlights how far we have come as a steel company to change not only the way we do things, but also the way we are perceived as a corporate citizen.

“We have long talked about the value steel brings to people’s lives and its unparalleled recyclability, but now we are finding ways to take those ideas further and become a zero-waste company by integrating circular economy principles into everything we do.”

Steelwork is also playing an important role in building a sustainable future. ArcelorMittal’s high-strength S460 and Histar® grades help reduce steel weight while maintaining excellent weldability.

These characteristics satisfy the needs of the construction industry for light and economical structures that meet both safety and sustainability criteria.

Histar® steels also reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

Substituting Histar® for regular steel achieves a CO₂ reduction of around 30% in steel columns and around 20% in steel beams. The 50,000t of Histar® the company produces each year represents a saving of 14,000t of CO₂, which is the same as the annual emissions of around 4,000 cars.

New High-Rise Design Publication

ArcelorMittal recently published its new High-Rise buildings guidance. Produced with the assistance and guidance of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) the guide highlights how structural steel can be used effectively in tall buildings, and includes various effective structural options, use of S460 and Histar®, stiffness considerations such as outrigger design, recommendations for seismic design, life cycle assessment and composite megacolumns.

The publication can be downloaded from: http://sections.arcelormittal.com/library/technical-brochures.html

Large Angles

Developed principally to increase the capacity of powerline pylons, renewable wind energy towers, antenna and other structural applications such as trusses, bracings, industrial halls, mezzanines and racking systems, ArcelorMittal produces hot rolled equal angles with a leg length of up to 300mm and material thickness from 18mm to 35mm.

Available in grade S355 to EN 10025-4: 2004 the 300 × 300 angle range now appears in EN 10056-1 :2017.

Capacities are given in ArcelorMittal’s Orange Book where it is shown that a 300 × 300 × 35 in S355 with a 3m system length has a flexural capacity of 4600 kN and a torsional capacity of 5530 kN.

See: http://orangebook.arcelormittal.com/

ArcelorMittal Sections supports revised SCI EC3 guidance

The SCI has published revised versions of its popular Eurocode design guides P361 Introduction to the Eurocodes, P362 Concise Eurocodes and P364 Worked Examples – Open Sections.

These revised editions reflect amendments to the codes since 2009 and include more detailed explanations to aid a designer in selecting rules most commonly needed for orthodox steel-framed buildings.

P364 now includes a full design in Histar® 460 for an intermediate level corner column in simple construction. Also, where appropriate, for full design examples using S355, alternative ArcelorMittal Orange Book designs in S460 are given for comparison.

SCI Associate Director David Brown considers the concise guide and the worked examples to be particularly valuable. “Instead of referring to multiple documents, and their respective National Annexes, the Concise Eurocodes guide brings all the important information together in one place, making the design process much easier.

“The worked examples are really helpful as they show the full calculation process, but in addition each example is completed using the Blue Book and Orange Book resources, demonstrating the practical way steel members are designed.”

Copies of these guides can be obtained from the SCI Book Shop at: https://portal.steel-sci.com/shop.html

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