ArcelorMittal hosts fourth Paint Supplier Innovation Awards

ArcelorMittal, the European leader in coil-coated steels, has organized and hosted the fourth Paint Supplier Innovation Awards (PSIA), which seek to stimulate creativity among the group’s paint and surface treatment suppliers.

This competition rewards proposals for future innovations, as opposed to past achievements.

ArcelorMittal uses the awards to encourage innovation in partnership with its suppliers for new and alternative product development.

The fourth edition of the PSIA comprised 17 submissions from seven international companies: ANIF/BASF, Beckers, PPG, Procoat, Salchi, Valspar and Novacel.

Three suppliers were recognised for their projects in three specific categories.

Beckers was awarded the prize for ‘Performance, Functionalities and Cost Competiveness’.

The company’s breakthrough proposal of a new coil coating concept opens the way to many future innovations.

Moreover, this proposal also offers lower energy consumption and cost efficiency.

The award for ‘Sustainability & Circular Economy’ went to AkzoNobel for its proposal for the use of renewable raw materials that fully meets ArcelorMittal’s expectations.

Additionally, this prize recognises all the efforts made by the company with regard to sustainable development.

The ‘Business Development’ award was given to Valspar for its project submission about the improvement of prepaint durability that will expand the industry’s use of coil coated steels.

A commitment to support ArcelorMittal in the development of new products is also acknowledged with this award.

During the ceremony, Olivier Brun, R&D Director for the Industry, said: "To reinforce its European leadership in the coil coated steel sector, ArcelorMittal must constantly supplement and renew its product offer.

"The PSIA trophies are an important annual event in our open innovation process and contribute to the generation of new ideas to explore together with the winning suppliers.”

In recent years, the strategy of co-innovation with its suppliers has led ArcelorMittal to develop coil coated steels that enable the group to maintain its leadership and provide its customers with new solutions.

These are increasingly sustainable, environmentally friendly products exhibiting aesthetic qualities that are highly valued by customers.

Recent examples of coil coated steels launched by ArcelorMittal include:

• Estetic BioAir: the first coil coated steel with organic coating is derived from bio-sourced resins and enjoys the best seals of approval in respect of interior air quality by virtue of the curbing of emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs);
• Solano Nature: the first coil coated steel with super-thick (200mm) coating is free of heavy metals, in particular hexavalent chromium, while providing excellent protection against corrosion and mechanical damage;
• Granite Quartz and Granite Storm: new coil coated steels to expand the ArcelorMittal range of products for residential roofing. Their matt and textured finish makes them products of choice for the manufacture of roofing products;
• Granite Silky Shine: new pre-painted steels for façade systems with a high-gloss luxurious finish.

Caption: Fanny Langevin (Global R&D Product Development), Frédéric Lourme (Lead Buyer Finishing Lines) and Olivier Brun (R&D director for Industry), with the three winners: Christophe Perrin (Beckers), Kaj Lindeqvist (Valspar) and Nick Brown (AkzoNobel)