ArcelorMittal Ostrava starts tree planting

Ostrava September 18, 2008 – 1111 trees will be newly planted in the Ostrava district by next June. In this way ArcelorMittal Ostrava will fulfil its promise to plant trees in return for plastic cups collected during the Colours of Ostrava music festival. “The first tree, which will be festively planted in Komenského sady on Monday 22nd September at around half past four, will be a plane tree of more than five meters,” says company CGO Petr Baranek.

The first tree will be planted by Sanjay Samaddar, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ArcelorMittal Ostrava, together with the representatives of the city of Ostrava. Before the tree is planted, a concert will be given by Petr Bende at 2.30 p.m. and a lot of entertaining competitions for children as well as adults will take place. Those who will be interested can try running down the Komenský sady´s paths with seven-league boots on, riding crazy bicycles or scooter racing.

“The plane tree will be the first to be newly planted, but other trees will follow soon,” explains Petr Baranek. 90 trees will be planted in Komenského sady and other trees, for example, in Radvanice and Bartovice borough. “The first tree in Radvanice will be planted within two days of the very first one, on September 24, outside the community centre,” adds Baranek. “Details of further tree planting have been discussed with the representatives of other parts of Ostrava as well as the adjacent municipalities, such as Hrabová, Vratimov, Šenov and Havířov.“ In the autumn, ArcelorMittal Ostrava will plant a hundred trees along Rudná Street in the Havířov direction.

All of the 1111 trees should be planted by the next Colours of Ostrava festival. Before this year’s festival started, ArcelorMittal Ostrava had made a promise to plant one tree for each one hundred plastic cups collected during the music festival. “The number of cups collected was 111 000, which would mean 1110 trees. We have added one more so that the number is better remembered by all those who wish to see whether we will keep our word,” says ArcelorMittal Ostrava’s spokeswoman Věra Breiová. The progress of tree planting can be monitored at www.prozelenouostravu.cz, where a counter will be started on Monday to count down the trees that have been planted.

“The tree planting project is a continuation of the company’s new approach to the environment in the region. In this respect, the situation will greatly improve with this year’s investment of CZK 1.5 billion in the dedusting of the Sinter Plants and the desulphurisation. In early September we signed contracts with the suppliers of the new state-of-the-art technologies,“ CGO Petr Baranek explains. The 24 hour toll-free green line 800 100 648, which is available to citizens to make inquiries and suggestions, enjoys a favourable response as well.

ArcelorMittal Ostrava a.s. is the largest steel company in the Czech Republic and a part of the world’s leading steel company ArcelorMittal. It produces more than 3 million tonnes of steel annually and exports approximately 60 per cent of its output to more than 80 countries all over the world. The company has 7,450 employees; the total number of employees including the subsidiaries is 10,300. Its major shareholders are MITTAL STEEL HOLDINGS A. G. (71.579 %), Havrton Investment Ltd. (13.881 %) and the Ministry of Finance (10.969 %).In the fiscal year of 2007 (which ended on February 28, 2008), the company generated a consolidated profit (after taxation) of CZK 9.2 billion. With total revenues of CZK 57.7 billion, ArcelorMittal Ostrava is one of the biggest tax payers in the Czech Republic.