Coated Products and Tin Mill Division with a million injury-free hours

On June 7 this year the Coated Products and Tin Mill team credited their account with one million employee-hours worked without injury. To mark this occasion, on Tuesday, July 19, eleven selected employees of this division were invited to a working lunch with U. S. Steel Kosice President David J. Rintoul.

Cost-saving continues

The Continuous Cost Improvement Project (CCIP) is continuing in 2011 based on team-work. More than 180 projects have been submitted, focusing on saving costs in six basic categories. The greatest savings in the first half-year were produced by projects aimed at materials saving (42 per cent), followed by energy saving (33 per cent) and production efficiency (17 per cent). The biggest share in this year's savings so far is credited to the Blast Furnaces, Steel Plants and Procurement teams.

Refrako products successful in Serbia

The portfolio of steelmaking refractory products supplied by USSK subsidiary Refrako to the U. S. Steel Serbia plants has been extended once again. In addition to permanent working linings for steel convertors, mixer ladle cars, molten iron and pouring ladles, tapping-hole components, and refractory and torcretizing materials, since February of this year the company has also been supplying argon lances to Serbia. Another new group of products heading for Serbia are tundish furnitures, in which Refrako-produced concrete has proved its worth.

Two safety projects during conti-annealing overhaul

Two projects aimed at improving employee safety were recently implemented in the Coated Products and Tin Mill Division. The first project concerns the handling of out-of-tolerance strip-end material at the input to conti-annealing line #1, while the second involves hands-free strip alignment for input to the same line. The aim of both these projects is to facilitate work for operators and reduce the risk of injury.