ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY HEADLINESEnvironment and Sustainability
ArcelorMittal Ostrava Plants 1111 Trees in the Ostrava Region
May 26, 2009 Since last September, ArcelorMittal Ostrava has planted 1111 trees in the Ostrava region, delivering on its promise to plant trees in return for the plastic cups collected during last year’s ‘Colours of Ostrava’ festival.
By planting trees, ArcelorMittal Ostrava is contributing to improved environment in the region while also helping the budgets of the surrounding municipalities, saving them nearly 6 million crowns (the total amount spent on the tree planting).
“Of course the easiest thing would be to plant 1111 small spruces somewhere in a forest. But our target was to plant trees that will become a symbol of ecology and so we planted relatively grown trees worth tens of thousands crowns,” said Petr Baranek, the company CGO.
The company planted a very diverse variety of trees. “We have been planting broad-leaved trees as well as coniferous trees – depending on the tree planting plans in the individual municipalities,” explained CR Department Head Monika Pěnčíková, who coordinated the tree planting with the cities and municipalities. The variety of tree species included alder-trees, maple-trees, ash-trees, oak-trees, coniferous pine-trees, and redwoods. The progress of planting the entire 1111 trees, including a map, photo gallery and videos, can be seen at the www.prozelenouostravu.cz website.
“Tree planting is a continuation of the new approach of our company towards the environment in the region,” said Petr Baranek. “The effort to ensure better life in our region remains our priority even in the current economically difficult period.
“Therefore in ArcelorMittal Ostrava we continue with the work on the project aiming at dedusting of sinter belts at the Sinter Plant,” continued Baranek. “Thanks to the most modern bag filters, the level of emissions of dust from this source will be reduced by more than 70%.
“Since the beginning of this year we have eliminated the infamous red smoke. This has been achieved thanks to multi-million investments to modernization and strengthening of secondary dedusting of the Steel Plant hall which was completed at the turn of the year,” added Baranek.
ArcelorMittal Ostrava, the biggest steel company in the Czech Republic, belongs to the world’s largest steel group, ArcelorMittal. Its annual production is more than 3 million tonnes of steel, with approximately 50% of its production exported to more than 80 countries of the world. The company’s headcount is 6600 people and together with its subsidiaries it makes more than 9300.
ArcelorMittal Ostrava’s biggest shareholders are ArcelorMittal Holdings A. G. (71.579% of shares), Harvton Investment Ltd. (13.881% of shares) and The Ministry of Finance (10.969% of shares). In the fiscal year 2007 (which ended on Feb. 28, 2008) the company generated consolidated profit after taxation of CZK 9.2 billion and incomes of CZK 57.7 billion.