ArcelorMittal Gent, site team
Grontmij site team feels at home at ArcelorMittal Gent
An engineering team from Grontmij has been working at ArcelorMittal Gent’s site since September 2010. It’s the company’s conscious choice to work with Grontmij in this way. “Now that the teething problems are behind us, the collaboration is on track,” says Vincent Van Coppenolle,
Manager Engineering & Investments Department at ArcelorMittal Gent.
Grontmij has been working for ArcelorMittal Gent (formerly Sidmar) since the early years. The engineering support dept. of the steel company had more than 200 employees in 2007, including 116 permanent staff; the others were external.
At the end of 2008 when the economic crisis hit, ArcelorMittal Gent let all the externals go and the number of permanent staff in the research department was reduced. The management decided that, in future, the company should be much more flexible in responding to the economic situation and that the fixed costs must be better controlled. Today, the engineering support dept. has 67 permanent employees.
Download the complete interview with Vincent Van Coppenolle, published in the Industry, Water & Energy Magazine (April 2011).