ArcelorMittal Ostrava in the Czech Republic has given 5 million crowns (US$257,630) in order to support the replacement of old environment-unfriendly household boilers in the region. The company has been reducing its own emissions on a long-term basis and thanks to the investment projects worth four billion crowns (US$206 million), it can boast 70% reduction of emissions since 2003, when the company was privatized. As part of the efforts to reduce emissions, the steelmaker has decided to support directly the citizens of the Moravian-Silesian region and together with other industrial companies has given money to the regional authority for subsidies designated for purchasing of new environment-friendly boilers.

"We are pleased to be the main partner of the project. Reducing one tonne of dust from local household furnaces is four times cheaper than environmental investments in our operations that already have a very good environmental performance," said Tapas Rajderkar, CEO of ArcelorMittal Ostrava. In all its operations the company complies with the effective regulations, including the more stringent values that are specified in the integrated permits issued by the regional authority. Furthermore, dust emissions from most of the operations are already below the BAT values that will come into force in Europe in 2016 at the earliest.

The Ostrava steelmaker has been reducing its environmental footprint on a long-term basis. Since 1970s, when the company emitted almost 40,000 tonnes a year, it has reduced its annual dust emissions by more than 98%. Last year ArcelorMittal Ostrava invested one billion crowns (US$51.5 million) in a bag filter at the Sinter Plant North, which will reduce emissions by approximately 270 tonnes per year. And thanks to this facility, the annual dust emissions went down to below 1,000 tonnes for the first time in the company history – to 669 tonnes.

A new boiler in a single-family house has a purchasing price of approximately 80 thousand crowns (US$4,120) and it will reduce emissions of dust approximately by 100 kg a year. With its 5 million crowns (US$257,630) contribution, ArcelorMittal Ostrava will sponsor the purchase of a total of 125 boilers, which will reduce emissions from local heating by approximately 187.5 tonnes over the period of 15 years (an estimated life of a boiler).

"Despite the fact that we keep reducing emissions from our operations on a long-term basis, the Moravian-Silesian region is struggling with air pollution especially in winter. It is necessary for other sources of emissions to improve their environmental performance as well," added Rajderkar. The contribution of individual sources to air quality has not been identified yet. The answer to this question should come out of the conclusions of an independent study AirSilezia by the Institute of Public Health in Ostrava.

ArcelorMittal Ostrava a.s. is the largest steelmaker in the Czech Republic and part of the world’s largest steel and mining group ArcelorMittal. Its annual production is 3 million tonnes of steel; about 50% of the output is exported to more than 60 countries worldwide. It employs 4,120 people, together with its subsidiaries more than 8,000 people. Average income of its employees amounted to 32,796 CZK (US$1,689) in 2011. The sole shareholder is ArcelorMittal Holdings A.G.