CSN | Companhia Sirderúrgica Nacional

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Environmental Responsibility is one of the pillars of CSN’s business strategy, so much so that concern for the environment is an integral part of its mission and values.Although the Company believes that, by producing more, it is contributing to the country’s development, it is equally aware that this growth should be accompanied by responsibility in relation to the health of the environment. Consequently, it not only complies with the existing legislation but also continuously invests in the most up-to-date environmental management practices in order to monitor risks and improve procedures, aiming at a truly “clean” industrial process.

CSN spent R$ 331 million on the environment in 2008 (including capex and current expenditure), 17% more than the previous year. Environmental capex has almost doubled in the last two years, totaling R$ 113.5 million in 2008, 19.4% up on 2007 and 96% more than in 2006.

Most of the funds went towards raising the Casa de Pedra Dam, adapting the water treatment stations in the Presidente Vargas Steelworks and maintaining and improving the equipment for controlling atmospheric pollution. The raising of the dam will permit greater control over soil contamination and improve waste management, while the improvements to the water treatment facilities and air-monitoring systems will enhance control over effluents.

Current expenditure in the environmental area also recorded an increase, rising from R$ 187.1 million in 2007 to R$ 217.2 million in 2008.

More details on CSN’s main environmental responsibility items are given below:

Environmental Management System (SGA) - Top

CSN is proud of the fact that its leading production units have received ISO 14001:2004 international environmental certification. In 2008, Galvasud and the Presidente Vargas Steelworks were recertified; the Casa de Pedra mine and Mineração Bocaina maintained their certification; and CSN Paraná was certified for the first time. In 2009, we believe Sepetiba Tecon will be similarly certified.

CSN will continue unifying its SGA throughout the current year, a process which should be concluded in 2010. The aim is to bring the Company into line with internationally accepted standards, while ensuring better control over its systems and continuous improvements in its environmental management.

The SGA combines general standards and rules of a corporate nature with the application of initiatives geared towards the specific characteristics and needs of each production unit. Basically, it reflects CSN’s environmental policy, which is based on six key elements: support for the business; corporate transparency; continuous improvement; pollution prevention; respect for environmental legislation;and the remedying of non-conformities. These principles, which form the acronym SEMPRE (ALWAYS) in Portuguese, underpin the objectives and targets of each unit, the preventive and corrective action plans and programs, and the monitoring, verification and audit procedures, thereby ensuring the efficiency and continuous improvement of the system.

Air Quality - Top

The Presidente Vargas Steelworks in Volta Redonda maintains an Internal Environmental Management Committee, comprising employees from the most diverse areas, which meets on a regular basis to ensure compliance with all the legal requirements and to seek out new monitoring technologies in order to anticipate possible future demands from clients.

CSN has been developing initiatives within the scope of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), designed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2008, it began implementing a project to replace clinker with slag in cement production and it will look into the possibility of implanting other CDM initiatives in 2009.

CSN also maintains several other projects to reduce GHG emissions, including:

• Eliminating the use of gases that contain chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) during the production process;
• Studying opportunities for reducing emissions and/or using them to produce energy;
• Drawing up of an inventory of GHG emissions, as recommended by the World Steel Association.

In order to guarantee air quality in its surrounding communities, the Company maintains a sophisticated air-quality monitoring network, comprising several monitoring stations located in the production units and the immediate surroundings. The resulting data are transmitted on-line 24 hours a day to the environmental authorities and are subsequently compiled and expressed through the Air Quality Index (IQA).

Water Resources - Top

CSN prioritizes the rational use of water resources, operating at all levels to ensure a nominal reduction in water capture, maintaining the steady reduction of the last few years. In 2008, it invested R$132 million in machinery and the control of water pollution, including equipment for and improvements to the Presidente Vargas effluent treatment stations.

The Presidente Vargas Steelworks captures 5,750 liters of water per second, and its fully up-to-date catchment and treatment system can even supply part of the population of Volta Redonda in an emergency. There are several kilometers of water supply and effluent control networks running throughout the plant and connecting all its units, as well as nine pump houses for water recirculation and 15 effluent treatment stations, nine of which in closed circuit, responsible for the returning all the treated water to industrial processes, and six for subsequent discharge into the Paraíba do Sul River, in compliance with legal requirements. This combination of investments has allowed the Company to reduce the volume of raw water captured by more than half over the last 10 years and achieve a captured water reuse ratio of 85%.

In 2008, Companhia Metalic Nordeste, Brazil’s sole manufacturer of twopiece cans for carbonated beverages, implemented a plan to rationalize water use in can washing and improve the efficiency of industrial effluent reuse. The project focused on reducing the consumption of natural resources through optimizing the procedures and processes involved in can washing, industrial effluent treatment and garden maintenance. By measuring the amount of oil and grease in the effluents, it was possible to use the discarded water in the washing tanks. Nowadays, instead of being sent to the public sewage network, this water is used to irrigate 35,000 m2 of green area on the Company’s land. In addition, thanks to the improvements to the can washing unit, the volume of water used in this process was reduced by 45% on average, while the implementation of the effluent recovery and measurement system resulted in an 89% reduction in effluent generation.

With projects of this nature, the Company has reaffirmed its conviction that water is a natural resource of economic, strategic and social value, which is essential for the existence and well-being of humanity and the preservation of the planet’s ecosystems, as well as the generation of goods, products and food through industrial processes. CSN believes it is the responsibility of society and companies to make use of this resource in such a way as to minimize waste and damage to the environment.

By-products and waste - Top

Steel production is an important generator of waste and the correct disposal of this waste, in order to prevent the contamination of the soil, water tables and air, is a major environmental concern. As a result, the Company has invested heavily in improving its waste management and in new technologies for the reuse of by-products.

CSN has always prioritized the rational use of natural resources. In 2008, the Presidente Vargas Steelworks Unit generated 3.38 million tonnes of waste, equivalent to 676 kg per tonne of crude steel produced. Of this total, 73.8% was sold; 24.39% recycled internally; 0.15% recycled externally; 0.13% co-processed in cement kilns; 0.1% incinerated; and only 1.43% disposed of in landfills licensed to receive such material.

Currently, 98% of the Company’s by-products and waste is reused commercially, generating revenue of R$ 297.5 million in 2008, 22.3% up on the previous year. One of the most valuable of such items is anode pitch, a co-product formed from coking gases, which is used as a raw material in aluminum production. In the near future, CSN will also be using part of the Presidente Vargas blast furnace slag and steel slab rejects (currently sold on the market) to produce cement and long steel, respectively, prime examples of new businesses based on byproducts and rejects.

Thanks to investments in the development of innovative technology for the recycling of steel residues, such as the addition of self-reducing pellets in torpedo cars, the processing of blast-furnace sludge, and the processing of construction and demolition rubble to produce concrete bedding and low-stress concrete artefacts, there has been a considerable reduction in discarded waste. The implementation of these projects, together with the increasing profitability of the Company’s industrial processes, has contributed to the environmental sustainability of CSN’s operations.

Energy - Top

CSN makes every effort to produce more of its own electricity and become more energy-efficient. Investments in hydroelectric facilities, such as the 1,450 MW Itá Hydroelectric Power plant and the 210 MW Igarapava Hydroelectric Power plant, generate 167 MW and 23 MW, respectively, for the Company.

The most important electric power initiative, which also helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is the 238 MW combined-cycle Thermoelectric Cogeneration Plant (CTE II). The unit uses residual gases from steel production to generate electricity, thereby minimizing the use of non-renewable fuels. CTE II is part of the Presidente Vargas Steelworks and is therefore associated with the hydro generation of our energy matrix, ensuring that the Company is self-sufficient in energy for steel production. In 2010, the Blast Furnace 3 Top Recovery Gas Turbine will be installed, permitting the reuse of blast-furnace gases to generate an additional 20 MW of electricity.

Environmental Preservation Areas - Top

Throughout 2008, work continued on the investigation, analysis and recovery of environmental liabilities inherited by CSN when it was privatized. The Company provisioned R$ 71.361 million to cover these liabilities, following the same criteria used in the previous year: obligations established through an administrative or judicial instrument, as well as risks considered probable, for which a reasonable estimate of remediation, indemnification, sanction or monetary compensation costs can be made.

The environmental recovery of the areas impacted by CSN’s coal mining operations between the 1940s and the 1980s in the state of Santa Catarina, has been executed in exemplary fashion, and is now a reference for other projects in areas jeopardized by the exploration of coal. A total of 405 hectares have been recovered, and a further 126 hectares are in the recovery process. These services have already involved:

• The movement of 5.050 m3 of waste and slag;
• The use of 820,000 m3 of clay for the reconstruction of new soil;O uso de 820 mil metros cúbicos de argila para reconstrução do novo solo;
• The application of 7,000 m3 of organic fertilizer, 91 tonnes of organo-mineral fertilizer, and 8,500 tonnes of limestone for the correction and fertilization of the “constructed soil”;
• The implementation of surface drainage networks, with 16,600 meters of ditches and drains;
• The planting of 10.8 tonnes of herbaceous plant and shrub seeds;
• The planting of 21,000 tree seedlings;.

CSN maintains 1,549 hectares of Permanent Preservation Areas and 1,336 hectares of Legal Reserves, as well as a Relevant Ecological Interest Area in the Cicuta Forest in Volta Redonda. The Company also administers other environmentally protected areas, amounting to approximately 1,414 hectares. These are:

• the Casa de Pedra Private Natural Heritage Reserve in Congonhas (MG);
• the Jurema Private Natural Heritage Reserve in Congonhas (MG); and
• the GalvaSud Forest, in Porto Real (RJ).

In 2008, Mineração Bocaina, located in Arcos (MG), planted 10,000 native species seedlings. This was the first phase in the recomposition of the legal reserve and planting should increase in the coming years, together with the company’s expansion in the region.

Environmental Licensing - Top

CSN maintains several programs for controlling and mitigating environmental impacts linked to the licensing procedures for the Company’s operations, especially the expansion projects, such as the Casa de Pedra mine and the new cement factory. The various initiatives include revitalization programs for degraded areas, the control of erosion-provoking processes, carefully planned deforestation in areas to be used, and the preservation, monitoring and rescue of flora and fauna.

Each project involving expansion of the Company’s activities is closely monitored by a technical team which seeks to anticipate and minimize all possible impacts on the environment, assessing everything from the correct management and disposal of solid and liquid waste to the monitoring of air quality and noise levels. These concerns are transmitted to all employees involved in the projects through a series of initiatives aimed at raising awareness of environmental responsibility.

In 2008, the Company applied for and obtained various environmental licenses for strategic developments, including the Preliminary License for the expansion of the Presidente Vargas Steelworks (RJ), the Installation License for the long steel plant (RJ), the Installation License for the top turbine in Volta Redonda (RJ), the Installation License for the equalization of berth 301 at the Sepetiba Tecon container terminal, and the Preliminary and Installation Licenses for various stretches of the Transnordestina Railway.

Transnordestina Railway - Top

With the implantation of the Transnordestina Railway, CSN seeks not only to expand logistics solutions in the Northeast region, but also to contribute to local development. The Company believes that the implementation of social and environmental programs transcends mere legal issues, leading to concrete change, despite the regional difficulties.

The environmental management of the Transnordestina project is being handled as a single process through the management of interdependent initiatives and those arising from the works themselves. The services have been developed in strict compliance with the current legal and regulatory requirements, so that the progress of the undertaking is entirely in tune with the procedures of the competent environmental organizations.

As a result, Transnordestina Logística has hired an interdisciplinary team to take charge of the on-site supervision and inspection of the works on a full-time basis.In addition to ensuring that all the legal and license-related obligations are met, the team will introduce controls, keep an environmental registry of the work in progress,and develop and implement environmental programs.

Dialogue with Society - Top

The Company believes that its environmental responsibility policy should be absolutely transparent and clear to its surrounding communities. For this purpose, it maintains a Green Line – Linha Verde CSN – available by toll-free phone (0800-2824440), through which community members can voice their complaints, criticism and suggestions regarding the Company’s environmental performance

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