Significant savings ArcelorMittal through autonomous transport procurement on spot market

As the world’s second-largest steel producer, ArcelorMittal is a major consumer of transport services. Due to the high level of manual work involved, rapidly fluctuating rates and a shortage of transport capacity, the steelworks in Bremen ran a trial using autonomous procurement. It was a success: 70 per cent of transport services were procured without human intervention. Roman Ruff of ArcelorMittal is pleased, as he reported at Transporeon’s annual event in Brussels: ‘‘We have achieved the promised cost savings of 4 to 6 per cent.’’

ArcelorMittal produces 65 million tonnes of steel per year, 29 million tonnes of which are produced in Europe. This includes rails, beams and wire rod, as well as sheet steel. ‘‘We produce hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheet steel. Depending on customer demand, we can galvanise the steel or apply a plastic coating,’’ explains Roman Ruff, transport & logistics performance manager at ArcelorMittal. ‘‘For sheet steel, we have eight plants in Belgium, France, Spain, Poland and Germany. We transport around half of all our steel by lorry. That amounts to approximately 10 million tonnes a year and 10,000 lorries a week, for which we use around 500 hauliers.’’

This story was originally published by Supply Chain Movement. Read the full story at Supply Chain Movement →