Vallourec has drafted its production policy with the aim of minimizing the impact of its activities on the environment at all levels. Man and his environment are at the heart of the Group’s policy, details of which are given in the sustainable development charter published by the Group.
Environment management
Pursuant to the management regulations applied to all aspects of the Vallourec Group’s organization, each company’s environmental policy is the responsibility of its management. The site manager is responsible for implementing an effective environment management system, in accordance with local conditions and the nature of the business. He must appoint an environment manager to be responsible for all environmental matters.
In France, the Environment department, attached to the R&D and Technology department and based at the Group’s Research Centre in Aulnoye (Nord), is responsible for coordinating the Group’s environment policy. It relies on the environment managers at each production site to communicate the Group’s policy and to ensure that improvements continue to be made at the Group’s offices and workshops.
Identical structures exist in Germany, Brazil and the United States:
thus, for the Group as a whole, more than 50 people at production sites in each country specialize in environmental matters.
Communication between the various countries is improving, and facilitates progress throughout the Group by means of the comparison of the respective performances and solutions adopted by each.
The Environment department in France is also responsible for coordinating and supervising this benchmarking, and, in particular, for gathering and consolidating all the Group’s environmental data.
The environment report, which is now circulated each year, summarizes this data, measures changes in the data as compared with earlier years in order to assess the progress achieved and
Audits and certifications
Environmental audits are organized regularly in each country, in order to assess compliance with regulations, environmental performance and environmental risks.
By the end of 2006, 21 of the Vallourec Group’s sites had obtained ISO 14001 certification:
■ France: V & M FRANCE CEV (Vallourec’s research centre),V & M FRANCE’s Deville and Saint-Saulve plants, Valti, Valinox Nucléaire, Vallourec Composants Automobiles Vitry and Vallourec Précision Etirage in respect of its Vitry, Rachecourt and Tonnerre plants.
■ Germany: V & M DEUTSCHLAND in respect of its Mülheim, Rath, Reisholz and Zeithain plants.
■ Scotland: VALLOUREC MANNESMANN OIL & GAS UK (Bellshill)
■ USA: V & M STAR in respect of its two plants in Youngstown and Houston and VAM USA in Houston.
■ Brazil: V & M do BRASIL and its subsidiaries V & M FLORESTAL and V & M MINERAÇAO in respect of all its activities (mining, forestry, steel mills and pipe mills).
■ India: Valinox CST.
A certification programme has been implemented for the period 2006-2008: its objective, as confirmed by Pierre Verluca in his 2005 Chairman’s statement, is to obtain certification of the main Vallourec sites by the end of 2008.
Compliance with legislation
The compliance of the production sites’ activities with legislation and regulations is regularly assessed, with the aid of audits.
In France, regulations are monitored by means of the intranet, via an environment portal that can be accessed by all production sites.
The regular and systematic review of these provisions enables frequent action to be taken in terms of improvements, investment and organization.
Environmental performance
The Group has been making sustained efforts over the past few years to improve the use of resources (water, power and raw materials), to optimize consumption, reduce the discharge of pollutants and the volume of waste and ensure their systematic reprocessing and recovery.
In order to facilitate the measurement of progress, indicators have been introduced at the various sites. The table below summarizes some of the main indicators for 2002 to 2006 for the Group as a whole.
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Water consumption 11,527,293 m3 10,615,429 m3 10,308,672 m3 10,256,011 m3 10,778,479 m3
Effluent discharges 5,191,214 m3 4,717,774 m3 4,483,054 m3 4,741,881 m3 4,997,413 m3
Electricity 1,472 gwh 1,480 gwh 1,680 gwh 1,713 gwh 1,787 gwh
Gas 3,250 gwh 3,099 gwh 3,633 gwh 3,817 gwh 4,096 gwh
Waste 356,680 To 455,425 To (*) 518,145 To 520,287 To 669,554 To (**)
CO2 675,819 To 644,748 To 747 995 To 772,224 To 831,537 To
(*) V & M STAR as from 2003.
(**) In the case of waste, the 2006 figure includes 90,000 tonnes of exceptional waste (building waste), linked to various building projects (building demolition, etc.) concerning, in particular, the two German sites in Rath and Reirolz.
The significant progress also made in the area of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is associated with the steel-making process implemented by V & M do BRASIL: charcoal is used instead of coke in its blast furnaces. In order to produce the charcoal needed for this process, V & M do BRASIL currently cultivates 130,000 hectares of eucalyptus forests which, while growing, consume carbon dioxide (CO2) and produce oxygen. This process contributes directly to the reduction of greenhouse gases: the steel mill’s emissions are exactly equal to the amounts consumed by the forests.
As regards the implementation of the European Directive on managing CO2emissions quotas, this affected only the Saint-Saulve steel mill in 2006, with quotas of 95,722 tonnes. 2006 emissions, which were verified by APAVE, totalled 77,610 tonnes. Part of the difference is linked to production that is slightly lower than in the medium term plan (2005-2007) but mainly to improved performance, due, in particular, to the optimization of furnace loading plans and energy efficiency.
Among these natural resources, water occupies an important place as far as the Group is concerned. Our industry is a major consumer of water, but thanks to the significant efforts made at all sites to reduce consumption, noticeable progress has been made: in terms of relative value (i.e. water consumption in relation to tube production) the Group’s consumption fell between 2000 and 2006 from 3.13 m3/tonne to 1.77 m3/tonne, as shown in the following chart:
Water consumption by Vallourec
* Tonnes produced: tonnes produced in each plant, which could be from steel, hot-rolled tubes, cold-finished tubes, etc. Each plant’s production (number of units of production produced at each plant calculated in
Water consumption
Water consumption in m3/tonne produced
0
The curve shown in the following table represents the level of CO2 emissions for the Group as a whole.
CO2emissions of Vallourec plants
All measurements of discharges of pollutants into the environment are below the current statutory levels, and, generally, have improved steadily over the past three years.
As far as the French sites are concerned, the soil is the subject of risk characterization studies in two main circumstances: if the plant has been involved in metalworking activities, even if such involvement took place before it became part of the Group, or if it possesses equipment that may cause pollution. No sites have been identified as requiring decontamination. Work at VPE’s Laigneville site associated with the discontinuance of production following the closure of the site in 2005 was finalized in 2006. The soil testing carried out resulted in the site being classified as category 2: site to be monitored.
No environmental accidents occurred during 2006.
Investment related to environmental protection
In 2006, capital expenditure by the Group directly related to
– water harvesting tank,
– modernization of water treatment plants,
– closed circuits for use in ultrasonic non-destructive testing, – filtration systems for atmospheric emissions,
– programmes aimed at reducing emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC): new facilities for varnishing,
– site clearance and rehabilitation,
– optimization of performance of heat-treatment furnaces (new burners, regulation, etc.),
– site security,
– improvements to storage facilities, shavings recovery, waste sorting area, waste disposal, etc.
Between 2000 and 2006, capital expenditure related to environmental protection amounted to nearly 10% of the Group’s total capital expenditure, as shown in the following chart:
Capital expenditure by the Vallourec Group related to environmental protection
Contribution of Vallourec products to the environment
Vallourec has also, for several years, been developing new products that are in line with trends in requirements associated with CO2emissions in tonnes
kg CO2/tonne produced
0
Capital expenditure related to environmental protection
% related to environmental protection
0
– other products made by the Group and used in the production of clean energy or to reduce chemical pollution,
– an important new grade of steel, VM12, used in thermal power plants (in particular in the ultra-supercritical power plant at Neurath, the world’s most powerful lignite power plant).