Salamander Days in Banska Stiavnica

On Friday of last week, September 11th, Banska Stiavnica was the venue for the celebrations of Miners', Geologists', Steelmakers' and Oilmen's Day, at which U. S. Steel Kosice was very well represented. The grand Guilds Assembly was attended by USSK President George F. Babcoke and other Company top managers, including Miroslav Kiralvarga, who made an official speech in his role as President of the SR Steelmaking, Mining Industry and Geology Association.
At the celebrations the Badge of Honor of the SR Minister for Trade and Industry with the motto For Loyalty At Work was presented to five Kosice steelmakers - Vincent Horovsky, air separator and compressor supervisor at the Power Engineering Division, Peter Dutko, machine maintenance technician at the Tin Mill, Stefan Novak, lead support manager at the Hot Strip Mill, Miroslav Pesko, chief tapper at the Blast Furnaces Division, and Viliam Hamrak, slag management unit manager at USSK subsidiary Vulkmont. The group of six men receiving awards was completed by Jozef Palcik, packaging technician at USSK subsidiary Obal-Servis, s.r.o. Kosice, to whom the Minister awarded the Badge of Honor with the motto For Sacrifice At Work.

Opportunity for closer cooperation presents itself

U. S. Steel Kosice subsidiary Labortest s. r. o. has four accredited laboratories at its disposal, and in recent days it has done an especially good job in providing services for the Corporation's North American operations. As part of the updating of safety data cards for U. S. Steel's operations in the USA, the Kosice lab staff worked on the analysis of a whole range of samples. These comprised blast-furnace slag, dust and sludge, pig-iron for steel production, slag from desulfurized iron, steel converter slag, dust and sludge, rolling mill scales, waste pickling liquor, zinc pot smears and tinning sludge and smears.
In analyzing these samples Labortest staff worked in close cooperation with the USSE Research Department. The results of Labortest's analyses have been accepted by U. S. Steel's American operations in their full extent, and their high level of professionality and the quality of the laboratory technology used in performing the analyses were also well appreciated. Labortest staff now believe that this was just the first step on the way towards continuing cooperation in the future.