Public Joint Stock Severstal : Severstal’s MSCI ESG rating upgraded to ‘B’

December 22, 2020 Severstal's MSCI ESG rating upgraded to 'B'

PAO Severstal, one of the world's leading vertically integrated steel and mining companies, announces that MSCI has revised its ESG rating upwards from 'CCC' to 'B' in its latest assessment.

The upgrade comes as a result of marked improvements in the 'Ecology' section of MSCI's assessment, and the Company's progress was also noted in the areas of 'Climate Change', 'Water Resources Management', 'Biodiversity' and 'Emissions and Waste'.

MSCI's ESG (environmental, social and governance) rating includes over 8,500 companies globally and is designed to assess the long-term resilience of a company to ESG risks. Detailed information on the MSCI ESG rating is available here.

The ratings upgrade is further indication of the significant sustainability progress made by the Company in 2020, having launched its enhanced greenhouse gas emissions reduction strategy and invested 1.34 billion rubles in environmental activities in the first half of 2020. This has resulted in improvements in other ESG ratings assessments, with the Company receiving improved scores from Sustainalytics and SAM S&P, as well as being included in the FTSE4Good index as a result of enhanced sustainability performance.

Alexander Shevelev, CEO of Severstal, commented:

'The improvement to our MSCI ESG rating is a testament to the significant work done by Severstal to further enhance its performance against different ESG metrics, and demonstrates the Company's desire to be as open and transparent as possible in its ESG disclosure. This has also been reflected in the positive response we have received from the investment community this year. We hope that our efforts will continue to be reflected through improved sustainability ratings in the future and to become an industry leader in these assessments. For us, as a socially responsible company, making a positive contribution to the lives of future generations is of utmost importance.'

A year of environmental progress

In July 2020, the Board of Directors of Severstal approved a public goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 3% by 2023 compared with 2020 levels, and the Company is also working on a long-term climate strategy. In addition, Severstal is implementing a broad programme to reduce its environmental impact through a large-scale environmentally-oriented refurbishment of its main assets. In December, the Company launched the first block of coking coal battery No. 11 designed using the latest technological developments in the field of environmental protection, and in the near future the Company plans to commission blast furnace No. 3 guided by a unique approach which will help to mitigate its negative effects on the environment. Severstal also has a new overarching goal of reducing atmospheric emissions at its operations by 13% by 2025. In 2019, the Company's investments in environmental projects amounted to about 750 million rubles, and by the end of the first half of 2020, the Company had already invested 1.34 billion rubles in environmental activities.

Continued ESG ratings improvements

Previously in 2020, the Company has also reported an improvement in its performance in other ESG ratings assessments. Sustainalytics reduced the risk level assigned to the Company from 39.1 points in 2019 to 34.7 (a lower number equates a lower risk level). With this reduction in risk level, Severstal entered the top 10% of steel companies globally for minimizing ESG risks, ranking 14th out of 140. In SAM S&P's (formerly RobecoSAM) corporate sustainability rating, Severstal's score increased by 7 points, from 41 to 48 points (out of 100 possible), meaning the Company is ranked 15th for its ESG rating among global metallurgical companies. The FTSE Russell ratings agency also confirmed the Company's position in the FTSE4Good index as a result of the latest ratings revision for the Company, which was raised to 3.5 from 3.0 in 2019, out of a maximum possible score of 5.