Public Joint Stock Severstal : Severstal announces new health and safety strategy

December 30, 2021 Severstal announces new health and safety strategy

PAO Severstal, one of the world's leading vertically integrated steel and mining companies, announces the approval of its new health and safety (H&S) strategy.

The updated strategy is based on a detailed analysis of the current state of the Company's health and safety management system and reflects Severstal's focus on the safety and welfare of all of its employees and contractors, and on encouraging them to take a proactive approach to these issues. In accordance with the new strategy, Severstal's primary public document on this topic, its Occupational Health and Safety Policy, has been substantially revised.

The new strategy highlights the key areas which the Company will focus on, including: risk management, with a focus on fatality risks, contractor safety, deviation management, developing employee skills and changes to the health and safety management structure. The the Company has developed an action plan in each area to enable the health and safety management system to reach a target of level 3 on the Bradley curve**, against the current 1.83.

Severstal has been implementing the changes reflected in the strategy since the start of 2021. In particular, the Company updated its incident management system, improved the recording practices for employee and contractor injuries, and has stipulated that there will always be an inquiry into the root causes of incidents for future learnings. These changes have already led to a noticeable decrease in severe injuries (by almost 20% in relation to 2020).

Earlier, Severstal's Board of Directors approved the Company's medium-term goals on health and safety, to be achieved by 2025. These include a 50% reduction of occupational injuries (LTIFR) from the 2017 level and the elimination of fatal injuries, as well as ensuring that all Company enterprises assess their compliance with the international standard ISO 45001.

Alexander Shevelev, CEO of Severstal, commented:

"Safety is an absolute priority for Severstal. This is a fundamental value that has guided us for many years and led to significant efforts to improve the health and safety systems at our enterprises. An analysis of our results over several years shows a progressive improvement in LTIFR*, from 0.96 in 2017 to 0.65 at the end of 2020, confirming our commitment to improving safety. At the same time, we are not satisfied with this improvement, and have set more ambitious goals, revising our H&S strategy to help us achieve our targets. We carried out a detailed analysis of our existing systems, identifying problem areas where significant changes were needed, and have already started to implement the updated strategy.

We fully recognise that contractor safety management is the most pressing area where we need to develop our performance and this is a priority under our updated strategy. We have also extended our targets for zero fatal injuries and a 50% LTIFR reduction by 2025 to our contractors. It is essential that we view our contractors as our business partners and engaging with them on safety is not limited to compliance requirements. It also includes their integration into our corporate management system, motivation programme and safety training programme."
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* Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR), injury frequency rate. It reflects the frequency of injuries resulting in disability, calculated as the ratio of the number of cases of loss of working time and the total amount of time worked in the organization for the reporting year.
** The Bradley curve is an indicator of the evolution of the safety culture level and the efficiency of the system in the field of health and safety. The scale assesses the transition from external supervision to a conscious attitude of each employee to labor safety issues. Safety culture on the Bradley scale is assessed by several indicators - adherence to management, procedures and standards, responsibility of line managers, motivation and involvement, training, audits, investigations, etc.