OREANDA-NEWS. January 15, 2014. ArcelorMittal’s Distribution Solutions site in Birmingham, UK has been awarded the 2013 Business Excellence Award by our customer, the prestigious Royal Mint - the body permitted to manufacture, or mint, coins in the United Kingdom.

The award recognised the company achieving the Ethical and Social Accountability 8000 (SA8000) standard.

The majority of the 400 tonnes of slit coil steel supplied each month is manufactured into the UK’s five pence and 10 pence coins. However, some of the tonnage is also manufactured into other currencies for coinage around the world. The steel supplied to The Royal Mint is hot-rolled, pickled and oiled (HRPO) DD13 in 2.50mm – 3.00mm thickness (sourced from ArcelorMittal Gent, Belgium).

As a result of this award, Distribution Solutions Birmingham will supply more steel to The Royal Mint for 2014, but the achievement also allowed our company to strengthen the long term relationship with the famous coin manufacturer.

Advancing the human rights of workers

Just over 18 months ago The Royal Mint set out on a programme, working with their major supplier base, to improve performance by developing the supply chain and bringing it closer to them. One of the fundamental principles they require their suppliers to fulfil is the focus on social and ethical responsibility.

The SA8000 standard entails a management systems approach, by setting out the structure and procedures that companies must adopt in order to ensure that compliance with the standard is continuously reviewed. To gain this standard, policies and procedures that protect the basic human rights of workers had to be in place.