The Chief Executive Officer of Acerinox, Bernardo Velázquez, thanked the Association for granting these awards, and added "I would like to congratulate all the Group's employees for the great success achieved and thank them for their great contribution to Acerinox's good reputation. Once again this year we have been the most awarded company in the sector".

Market development

From agriculture to security

Acerinox was awarded the gold and the bronze prize in the market development category, in which the jury was looking for highly original concepts that promote bespoke stainless grades, have a significant global market potential and offer strong environmental improvements.

The Gold award was for the ‘Vertical Farming’ concept. The aim of this project is to grow crops anywhere in the world regardless of external climatic conditions. Vertical farming turns agriculture into an industrial process in which constant costs, production and quality are achieved.

The Bronze award was given to North American Stainless (NAS) for a project concerning stainless steel bollards that extends the life cycle and reduces the costs thereof, thanks to the selection of materials that reduces corrosion and the maintenance needed.

Safety

Our priority: preventing accidents

In this category the jury looked for practical innovations that reduce the number of safety incidents in the workplace and/or develop transferrable countermeasures to avoid specific injury types.

Acerinox Europa was granted the bronze award for the implementation of an automatic extraction system of lubrication grease from the damping system of the AOD converter movements, and thus avoiding the risks arising from manual operation.

Sustainability

Consume the absolute minimum even when not in production

In this category, the jury was looking for new developments that delivered a clear reduction in operational emissions (GHGs), a clear reduction in production energy intensity, an improvement in material application efficiency, an investment in new processes and/or products that have a positive environmental impact and the development or enhancement of the company environmental management system.

Acerinox Europa, our plant in Campo de Gibraltar, won silver for the programme to reduce energy consumption in non-productive periods through innovative stoppage protocols. The plan is based on 21 procedures implemented in the organisation's management system, which are audited annually in the context of ISO 50001.