ROZHOVOR In 1930 a new rolling mill was brought into operation, the largest in Europe of the time. Even nowadays Třinecké železárny rank among the most up-to-date plants in Europe in the view of machinery used, technologies applied (including PCI technology, i.e. pulverized coal injection in blast furnaces, modern rolling mills of cutting edge dedusting technologies installed at all great production facilities).

Even nowadays Třinecké železárny rank among the most up-to-date plants in Europe in the view of machinery used. What is the sum of topical investments in production improvement, and in development and modernization of Třinecké železárny? Briefly summarized, I can say that recently the annual investments have been about two to three thousand million Czech Crowns. Will you introduce your activities in environmental protection? We continuously improve the ecologization of production so as to reduce the air and water pollution, improve the waste management, etc. Since the privatization of the company in 1996 we have spent over eight thousand million in ecological investments only. We took crucial steps in 2013 and 2016 when we dedusted three largest production aggregates, agglomeration, blast furnaces and steelworks; and introduced a range of minor measures to reduce emissions of solid pollutants. The positive effect of our efforts is proved by the lowest total solid pollutant emissions so far achieved in 2017 (146 tons) which represents the decrease of dust emission by over two thirds in the past four years. Our current technologies comply with the strictest dust and other pollutant emission limits. It may bring higher running costs at these plants yet the effect with inhabitants of the region is considerably better if compared to the past. You intensively focus on social responsibility: which activities do you consider crucial? Třinecké železárny have a great tradition in social responsibility. Related to the geography and historic connection with people of the region of Třinec and Jablunkov, there has always been a strong influence on life and development near the plant that has been there for 180 years. 14 ǀ POSITIV 3/2018

The key relations are those with partners on social, communal, and business levels. We are proud to “speak the same language” with representation of municipal and local governments, we closely co-operate with the statutory city of Třinec and municipalities nearby. We have recently focused on the young, supporting sporting and other activities of various associations; we also seek various ways to make them interested and curious about the plant, to make them proud of their region where they are growing and which is so closely connected to the ironworks. We send children to curative stays in the Tatras Mountains, we provided all kindergartens with polytechnic play kits, every year we award talented pupils, we attend schools and prepare competitions for pupils, etc. In co-operation with City Council we develop local parks, the city green as well as traditional folk events that keep local traditions alive.

Our current technologies comply with the strictest dust and other pollutant emission limits. What do you consider the most important feature in the development of the company and in keeping your good position on the market? The long term strategy of Třinecké železárny is to increase the added value of our products. We keep investing in the company development and new production lines in order to bring our customers steel products of an outstanding quality fitting their individual needs and demand. We increase the level of finalization of our products, make our processes more efficient, and introduce automation and robotization. Those are the key tasks: we have started a few automation processes aimed at reduction of physically challenging and monotonous jobs, making thus production more efficient and safer. We’ve been working on monitoring the material flow in production processes which is connected to the history of the product (carefully followed by customers in automotive industries). Briefly said, we need the data of a particular product to travel with the product without a human assistance. Automation is now part of each and every new investment, there are no current investments without automation involved.

“Smart” businesses can be also seen in union with cutting edge IT applications that make the processes in the company and production automated, but also provide for the use of analytic and predictive models in decisions-making and strategies. The predictive analytics and machinery capable of learning will undoubtedly be used in order to increase efficiency in planning. Last but not least, we want automation focused on the increase of productivity, leading to better competitiveness of the company on the market. The position achieved this way will enhance our export opportunities and increase the production. Without investments and flexible response to the developments on the market we cannot make our vision come true. We want the future generation to develop the company and keep the good