EBOOKS

Arcelormittal

By Friends of the Earth Europe and other organisations

	FREE

OVERVIEW

In May 2008, environmental and community groups from countries ranging from South Africa to Kazakhstan, having in several cases tried in vain for years to press individually for improvements in ArcelorMittal's steelmills and mines, decided to bring their complaints to ArcelorMittal's annual general meeting in Luxembourg. They aimed to present their complaints to the company, primarily about its environmental and health and safety impacts and its failure to improve the situation.

During the last 15 years, ArcelorMittal's predecessor companies, mainly Mittal Steel, have bought up several old and highly polluting steelmills and made them profitable, however environmental improvements other than those necessary to increase production efficiency have been painfully slow. In several countries the company has received low-interest public loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) for environmental improvements but the results have been largely invisible to local people. As well as pollution, several groups have raised issues such as the repeated fatal mining accidents in Kazakhstan, which have been partly blamed on poor health and safety practices, and plans to build mega-steelmills in India, displacing tribal people from their land in a country where such processes have rarely if ever led to an improvement in the situation of those affected.

The groups, which make up the Global Action on ArcelorMittal coalition, also launched a report entitled "In the wake of ArcelorMittal"1, giving an overview of the problems suffered by the neighbours and workers at several of ArcelorMittal's plants. The management of the company showed itself open for dialogue and an initial meeting was held on 13 May 2008. This publication aims to give an overview of what has happened since then and how we see the company's efforts to improve its environmental, health and safety performance.

A review of the global steel giant’s environmental and social impacts in 2008-2009.