Michael L. Terry returns to USA after 3 1/2 years

After well over three years in Kosice, Michael L. Terry is returning to USA. Throughout his time here he has worked as General Manager Engineering Activities. Before leaving he found time for an interview with Ocel Vychodu, and here is a selection from it:
Can you still remember your first day in Slovakia?
- I remember very well. It was Friday, February 20th, 2004. Right after we flew in my wife went off to our flat, and I came to the steelworks. I started work on Saturday, and there's been no change since then.
How did your new colleagues welcome you? What was it like working with them? Among the Slovaks you have a reputation for being pleasant-natured and knowledgable in your field.
- All the Slovak engineers and the people in my section made me feel very welcome. Right from the start they were keen to cooperate as well as they could. They're well educated, with a great deal of knowledge, and just like me they wanted to produce - and they do produce - good work. I can only speak well of my colleagues. Meeting them has been very good experience for me.
Without a doubt the biggest project you've managed in Kosice has been the construction of HDG line No.3. Were you in awe of it at first?
- Galvanizing line No.3 has been the biggest project, yes, but I was never worried that we wouldn't be able to complete it. We have a very good project team, and we worked well with operations and maintenance from the outset. Project Manager Jozef Skrivanek was previously in charge of construction of Dynamo line No.3, so he had plenty of experience. And I together with Patrick J. McTiver, who works in the section of GM Finishing, we were involved in the past in similar projects in other operations of our company.
So you can compare. What is our line like?
- Absolutely the most modern. Capable of competing with any other plant in the world whatsoever.
Will we be seeing you at the grand opening of the HDG line in September?
- I'm sure I will be here.

Objective: standardization in packaging

Discussion regarding corporate standardization of packaging codes continued this month at U. S. Steel Kosice. The negotiations on this topic, combined with tours of the plants and packaging lines, were attended by David Bormet, Dick Brooks and Terry Onufer from the Best Practices team in the USA. "Similar visits, with the objective of unifying the system of packaging codes, have already taken place in the American operations," says Miroslav Majercak, Director of Subsidiaries at U. S. Steel Kosice. "In the future this area will be completely incorporated into the ERP system. The main benefit of this effort will firstly come from clarity of coding, but ultimately from standardization of packaging itself throughout the Corporation. The aim is to simplify and reduce the number of packaging types available."

Rainy skies see course records fall in the Kosice-Sena half-marathon

Not even the rainy weather on Saturday, June 23rd, discouraged the runners in the 5th edition of the annual Kosice-Sena half-marathon, for which U. S. Steel Kosice is principal sponsor, from the aim of beating the course record and winning the special bonus to boost the prize for victory in the East Slovakian Athletics Association's Half-marathon Open Championships for individual men and women. And new course records were set by the winners in the main categories - Jan Krizak (ASK Grafobal Skalica) for the men and Ingrid Vancisinova (Z1 - TJ Strocin) for the women. Krizak, 37 years old and favorite to win the race, came home in a time of 1h07m52s, which was 1m22s faster than the previous best-time holder, the well-known Kosice runner Marcel Matanin, from last year. Victory brought Krizak a prize of 4000 SKK, plus another thousand crowns as the bonus for the new record. Five years younger Vancisinova, with her time of 1h21m40s, overcame Gabriela Ihnatova of Michalovce's 2003 record by as much as 7m15s, taking tenth place in the combined ranking and beating many, even younger men. Her account grew by 3000 SKK, plus another thousand for the new record.