ArcelorMittal – captivating company presentation at NIT

17.02.2012

On February 14, the NIT had the great pleasure to welcome Dipl.-Ing. Lutz Bandusch, CEO, and Dr.-Ing. Marc Hölling, Manager Process Technology (R & D), of ArcelorMittal Hamburg GmbH, as well as MSc. Jesus Robles Reyes (NIT alumnus and employee at ArcelorMittal) and five further managers and supervisors of different ArcelorMittal departments,  for a company presentation and discussion.

Mr. Bandusch introduced ArcelorMittal, being the world's largest steel producer with a great production plant in Hamburg since 1969, and outlined the company’s vision and its future outlook. Dr. Hölling pointed out the main field of process optimization based on the fact that, though the company’s Hamburg plant is one of the smallest, due to process optimization it is one of the most efficiently working plants of the company. NIT alumnus Jesus Robles Reyes talked about his professional experience at the company, the opportunity of collaborating with international colleagues, and focused on how he would apply the skills he gained at NIT for his work.

Directly after the presentation, the students took the chance to discuss with Mr. Bandusch about the future of steel industry in general and in Germany. A special focus of the discussion was on sustainability, current market trends, as well as threats by growing global players such as China and the energy transition in Germany – and ArcelorMittal's strategy to cope with these challenges. The students were particularly interested in how the company dealt with the financial crisis.

After the official part of the presentation, ArcelorMittal invited for a “get together” where students were able to talk to all eight ArcelorMittal representatives about their particular field of interest, while enjoying snacks and beverages, sponsored by the company.

As a part of the company presentation, ArcelorMittal had invited NIT students for the next evening for a visit at the Hamburg production site. ArcelorMittal’s aim is a continuous improvement in all parts of the steelmaking process. This aim comes into practice, for example, at the smelting installation which has been constantly improved to work highly energy efficiently. The climax of the tour was the observation of the melting process in the electric arc furnace.

All company representatives of ArcelorMittal were very open to any questions by students and absolutely committed to show and explain all elements of steelmaking in Germany. All this made the company presentation as well as the excursion very gripping and ArcelorMittal once again proved to be an excellent host.

Thanks a lot for the invitation!