ISSF Announces Winners of 2017 Safety and Sustainability Awards

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster):  The International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) has announced the winners of the 2017 Sustainability and Safety Awards. The winner of the Sustainability award is Outokumpu, whereas Acerinox Europe SAU was selected as the winner of the prestigious Safety award. The awards were announced during the ISSF 21^st Annual Conference held in Tokyo on 18^th May.

According to ISSF, the standard of entries remained exceptionally high. In order to increase the incentives to submit entries, it was decided to introduce second and third place winners in both the categories. On account of high entry quality, ISSF has selected two joint winners in both second and third places in Safety Award category. The second place award was shared by Columbus Stainless and Aperam Genk. The third place was shared by JFE Steel and POSCO. The second and third place winners of Sustainability Award category are POSCO and Slovenian Steel Group respectively.

Safety Awards

Acerinox Europe SAU was adjudged the winner under this category for their recommendations aimed at improvement in the gripping system of the lifting gear for the elevation and manipulation of the tundish for continuous casting. The system was found to increase the safety and decrease the risks because the operator will not have to handle the lifting device with articulated chains, ISSF noted. By reducing the number of operators required to one, it also results in increased productivity and efficiency, it added.

Columbus Stainless has been recognized for their efforts in optimizing safety and security of transporting facilities at Middelburq plant in South Africa. The Aperam Stainless Belgium, Genk plant was selected as second place winner for increasing safety-awareness with transport companies. JFE Steel has been recognized for its effective use of DVDs for safety training to employees. Also, POSCO has developed a new system that employees make short films about accidents and near-misses that happened at site, after which safety incidents reported sharp decline in numbers.

Sustainability Awards

ISSF has honored Outokumpu for implementing new technologies to reduce transport emissions. The company, in cooperation with a local transport supplier, had made significant efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels. As part of the project, all the company trucks were converted to biofuels. Also, the company, in association with Swedish business, academia and government authorities, has undertaken a new electric road project, that aims to reduce the use of fossil fuels with the help of electrification in road transport.

POSCO, the second place winner had put into practice an ‘Energy Management System’ by which all operating plants could check their energy consumption on a monthly basis. The system also allows all factories to share their activities to improve energy intensity with other factories. The third place was won by SIJ Metal Ravne Ltd, a part of Slovenian Steel Group for utilization of high temperature waste heat of UHP furnace and support for sustainable development of neighboring district heating system.

About ISSF

The International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) is a non-profit research organization, which serves as the world forum on various aspects of the international stainless steel industry. ISSF was founded in 1996.