ArcelorMittal Ostrava continues to plant trees

Ostrava, 11 December 2008 – Yesterday afternoon the first tree out of 229, that were given to the town of Vratimov by ArcelorMittal Ostrava, was planted at the square in Vratimov. It is another tree out of 1111 trees in all which the mill promised to plant in Ostrava region after this year’s music festival Colours of Ostrava. “It is a follow-up of our company’s new approach to the environment in this region. Besides planting trees we began implementing some of our bigger and smaller projects for improving the environment in our region,” explains Chief green Officer, Petr Baranek.

ArcelorMittal Ostrava has planted 160 trees in Ostrava region so far. The first one was a more than five metres high sycamore at Komenskeho sady in Ostrava. Then a silver spruce for Radvanice and a fir for Ostrava-South followed. In October, three maples were planted in Vratimovská street in front of the underpass and 102 trees along Rudná street. “Nearly half of them are maples but we also planted lime trees, rowan trees, birches and sycamores here. However, you can also find there such trees as ginkgos or saddletrees.” enumerates Baranek.

Further 52 grown-up trees were planted in the boulevard in Havířov. ArcelorMittal Ostrava has given more than 1 million CZK for this. “Most of the trees that we plant are fairly grown-up trees thus the costs are really high,” adds Petr Baranek. Other hundreds of trees will be planted within the next year. Now it is Ostrava’s, Hrabová’s, Šenov’s, Václavovice’s, Radvanice’s Bartovice’s and Ostrava-Poruba’s turn.

ArcelorMittal Ostrava is going to plant 1111 trees in Ostrava region by July 2009. Prior to the festival Colours of Ostrava the steelmakers promised that for every one hundred plastic cups, that would be collected during the event, it will plant one tree. “111,000 plastic cups were collected which would mean 1110 trees. We added one more tree so that it is easier to remember to all who would like to know whether we keep our word,” says the spokeswoman of ArcelorMittal Ostrava, Věra Breiová.

Of course, planting of the trees is not the only environmental initiative of ArcelorMittal Ostrava. This September the company signed a contract with suppliers of technologies for dedusting of sinter plants and desulphurization of power plant worth of 1.5 billion CZK. Due to increased frequency of cleaning at the plant’s premises it collects additional one thousand tons of dust annually. In the mid year, a new position of the Chief Green Officer on par with the top management was established. “We are the very first company in the Czech Republic that has moved measures related to the environmental policy into direct contact with the senior management,“ adds Breiová.

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.