ArcelorMittal to act on recommendations from dss+ safety review

Steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal has commenced the implementation of a series of workplace safety recommendations. The proposed changes are from a comprehensive review by dss+.

Luxembourg-based multinational ArcelorMittal is a the second largest steel producer in the world. With over 150,000 people worldwide and a market cap of over $20 billion, it boasts an annual crude steel production of around 80 million metric tonnes. 

But the production of steel comes with notable risks. The most common hazards in the steel industry include respiratory risks, muscle strains and heat burns. Across the steel industry, some 85 fatalities were reported to Worldsteel in 2022 alone, illustrating the grave cost of failing to safeguard employees from these hazards.

ArcelorMittal’s own operations had encountered deadly accidents in various countries over the years, causing damage to its reputation. For example, the company was forced by the government of Kazakhstan to sell its mining business in the country to a state-run investment fund, after a fire at one of its mines claimed the lives of 45 miners.

As ArcelorMittal sought to respond to these difficulties, and boost its own safety procedures, it brought in consultants from dss+ to help flag up areas for improvement. An audit by the consulting firm's dedicated workplace safety practice was completed at the end of 2023 - and found that while the steel giant did have appropriate policies and standards in place, implementation varied across the group. 

Implementing policies and standards is the size of the group, which operates in a long list of countries around the world, was identified as one of the top challenges it faced. So, dss+ recommended ArcelorMittal needed to find a way to effectively implement its safety culture across the board. 

Davide Vassallo, CEO of dss+, commented, “ArcelorMittal has made considerable effort to improve its safety standards and processes in recent years and there is understandable concern that results still fall short. Across a group of such scale and breadth it is not surprising that we encountered considerable variability in performance."

Global safety audit

The dss+ audit took place over nine months at 155 sites. It included a thorough examination of health and safety practices across the group; from reviews of documents and data, to meetings with management, focus groups. dss+ also carried out over 280 interviews with ArcelorMittal employees and leaders.

According to Vassallo, this also underlined the finding that while standards and protocols across the group were broadly in line with good practice, behaviours still fell short of those expectations. At the same time, the safety management of contractors needed improvement. This could help ensure a more consistent culture across the firm's global operations.

"The challenge is to raise all operations in the group to the same high standard – and this is what our recommendations are fundamentally designed to address," Vassallo added.

Almost a year later, ArcelorMittal has forged ahead with plans to meet those requirements. According to the company, ArcelorMittal has already nearly completed the interim Fatality Prevention Standards recommendations given to specific sites. 

Policies include improving risk identification, strengthening assurance models, and embedding a group-wide safety culture - with an end goal is to achieve zero fatalities and serious injuries. Some business units have also started to develop safety roadmaps, which they will incorporate into their five-year planning cycles.

Identifying the priority sites that will be the first to implement the new Process Safety Management framework in connection with the business unit-specific workplans each business unit develops; 

The firm will continue to take steps to apply process safety management elements to all new projects; and improve select ArcelorMittal fatality prevention standards based on dss+’s recommendations. This is progress which the company will continue to update its stakeholders on in the future, further incentivising the success of the project.