Senior Environment Adviser of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Robert Adamczyk and Senior Manager for Sustainable Development and Corporate Responsibility of ArcelorMittal Аlan Knight paid a two-day working visit to ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih.
At the end of 2017 EBRD approved opening of a credit line for ArcelorMittal at 350 million euros to finance the investment projects at Kriviy Rih’s plant. The major part (some 200 million euros) will be allocated for construction of new sinter plant – оne of the major projects within the company investment program. The new sinter plant, as well as other new facilities – ongoing LFCCs, COB No. 5, 6 recently commissioned and other – will enable the biggest mining and steelmaking company of Ukraine reduce its environmental footprint and meet European standards.
First and foremost, the visitors were interested to know how the new construction proceeded, whether there were any issues associated with documents preparation and putting environmental impact assessment in place (EIA). The Ukrainian Law “On environment impact assessment” came into force on December 18, 2017. It regulates legal and organizational aspects of environmental impact of business taking into account authorities, community and private opinion.
The guests focused on environmental matters, namely: current status of environmental implementations, openness of our company in sharing environmental data with community, as well as relations with stakeholders.
Apart from that, EBRD and ArcelorMittal representatives, including Manager for Investment Control Manoj Saxena, met Vasilina Nikulnikova, authorized representative of NGO “Regional bureau of environment protection” (Kriviy Rih city). During the meeting both parties shared their opinion on environmental aspects of projects, discussed on how they could be properly communicated in mass media focusing on Environmental impact at the region.
Robert Adamczyk: “We invest in projects aimed at reducing environmental load. For sure, new facilities of ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih, the construction of which we support, will operate as per all European environmental standards. On our side, we will provide for supervision of projects implementation funded by EBRD. Of course, there shall be transparent communication with the public at all stages of implementation of the projects supported by EBRD. It is critical for city residents to understand what development stage the company reached and what it will become in future”. (AMKR/Ukrainian metal)
