Costs-saving meeting yesterday

There was a planning meeting in the main lecture room of USSK Admin Building yesterday, February 12th, attended by U. S. Steel Kosice President David H. Lohr and other top managers of the Company, Divisions and specialist Departments, for the Costs-saving Plan which is itself part of the Company's Comprehensive Continuous Improvement Program (CCIP). The agenda included assessment of last year's Program results, introduction of the Costs-saving Plan for this year 2008, but also presentation of awards for the best teams and costs-saving projects from last year.

Changes at Finishing from February

The sector of U. S. Steel Kosice Vice-president Operations has recently seen several changes made in its structure and staffing. These changes particularly affect Finishing, and came into effect on February 1st. The section of GM Finishing has been divided into two, the section of GM Rolling Mills and the section of GM Finishing. The new GM Rolling Mills Ladislav Hanuscalka, previously Deputy GM Production Support, is now responsible for the Hot Rolling Mill and Cold Rolling Mill plants. GM Finishing Tom Kevin, who came to join the Kosice steelmakers' team at the end of last year, will be managing the Shipment division, the Coated Products division, and the newly-established Tin Products division, created by separation from the former Coated Products division.
Tom Kevin's new Deputy is Tibor Kovacs, who was GM Non-Steel Production until February 1st. The Tin Products division, whose top manager will be known very shortly, will cover the operations of the Tin-plating and shearing lines, the Conti-annealing line and two-stand tandem, and Tin Products Maintenance. After this reorganization, the Coated Products division will consist of the Coated Product operations I and II and Maintenance. These will continue being led by their manager to date Peter Polyak. At the same time two further personnel changes have been made. GM Primary Bratt Bentley, who has returned to the USA, has been replaced by James Gray, who worked at Great Lakes until his recent move to Kosice. The new GM Non-Steel Production is Miroslav Grela, who until now was Deputy GM Rolling Mills.

KORAD radiators travel around Kosice

U. S. Steel Kosice has its own street-car - only not quite literally. The Company's colors now "clothe" one of the street-cars of the Kosice City Public Transport Company. This advertising tram, which appeared on the tracks for the first time last Thursday, February 8th, draws attention to the Kosice steelmakers' top product, the KORAD radiator. "There's fierce competition on the radiators market," says USSK GM Marketing and Strategic Planning Julius Lang. "High product quality and competitive pricing go without saying, so manufacturers are looking for various way of appealing to and attracting consumers." The creator of the artwork design for the steelworks advertising tram is Vladimir Vavrik from USSK's commercial promotions office.

Jarabina man helped raise US flag at Iwo Jima

To honor Slovak-American relations, U. S. Steel Kosice, represented by Michal Pinter, Director SR Government and EU Relations, recently presented a replica statue of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, which dramatically depicts the famous flag raising on Iwo Jima, a Japanese island, to Ambassador Vincent Obsitnik. The flag raising took place in a fierce conflict on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945 and was captured in a now iconic photograph, later turned into a sculpture.
Although the picture and statue are known very well by Americans even today, very few realize that one of the Marines who took part in the event was a Slovak named Michal Strank who was born in Jarabina, Slovakia on 10 November 1919. Sergeant Strank immigrated to Pennsylvania at an early age and graduated from Franklin High School in 1937 and joined the Marine Corps in 1939. The Marines of Marine Security Guard Detachment Bratislava took part in the brief ceremony, which occurred on January 18. Ambassador Obsitnik presented the statue to the Marine Security Guard Detachment, who now display it in the main lobby of the US Embassy on Hviezdoslav Square in Bratislava.