Steelmakers wish each other another successful year
The tradition of having Company management members greeting employees in the last few hours at the end of the year was maintained on December 31, 2014 as well. In the vestibule of Main Gate No.2 the employees leaving from the afternoon shift and those arriving for the night shift were greeted by U. S. Steel Kosice President George F. Babcoke together with Kosice City Mayor Richard Rasi and Vice Presidents of the Kosice steelmaking company Martin Pitorak, Marcel Novosad, John P. Coyne, Michael A. Fedorenko and Elena Petraskova. Also present of course were the labor union leaders, KOVO U. S. Steel Kosice Labor Union Council Chairman Mikulas Hintos and Labor Union Council Deputy Chairman and KOVO Steel Plants Divisional Union Organization Chairman Juraj Varga. For the New Year the steelmakers wish each other good health above all, as well as good fortune and success in their professional and personal lives.
Worldwide steelmakers' competition for the ninth time
Eight young steelmakers from the Kosice works were among the active participants in last year's international competition named the Virtual Steelmaking Challenge, the ninth edition of which took place on December 17 and 18, 2014. The task for the two-member teams entering the 24-hour battle with thousands of other current and future steelmakers all over the world was to simulate the production in an oxygen converter of a specially-defined grade of steel, not only fulfilling the specified technical parameters but also keeping the total production costs as low as possible. This two-round competition is intended for university and college students and for employees in the steelmaking industry with less than five years of working experience. The competitors have already completed the first, regional round, and the winners from the four world regions - North and South America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Asia and Oceania and China - go through to the world championship taking place in Brussels on February 11, 2015.
E-contractual reduces amount of paper and administrative work
The mass of paper documents printed and scanned by staff in USSK's Procurement Department is progressively becoming a thing of the past. Teams from the Procurement Department and the Procurement Activities Support section, together with the Legal Department and BSCE, have designed and implemented the E-Contractual project, making dealings with contractors fully electronic and automated to the maximum extent, thus putting them into the category of hands-free transactions. This electronic system is currently used by more than 60 per cent of our suppliers, and they are full of praise for it. In this way the Company has reduced the administrative workload, and significantly reduced the signing and sending of paper documents. At present over 70 per cent of purchase orders are handled electronically via the web, and this proportion will be increased further in the future.
