Blog: worldsteel Day for Safety and Health - Advancing through data transparency and learning

Steel is a high-hazard, heavy industry, where workers routinely deal with risks from the machinery and equipment they operate as well as extreme process conditions and hazardous substances involved.

Nevertheless, the industry has made remarkable improvements in managing these risks through sustained efforts over decades.

worldsteel, through its focused sustainability programmes, supports members on this improvement journey, as part of its commitment to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of everyone working for the industry.

Transparent public reporting of the industry’s safety and health is an important part of demonstrating our commitment to our stakeholders.

With the Safety and health in the steel industry: Data report 2026 published today, we aim to further enhance this transparency by introducing indicators like all injury frequency rate and various region-wise analyses, which enable consistent benchmarking and further support our efforts to align our global reporting.

In addition to reporting on incidents, this year, we also bring into the public domain, industry best practices on safety and health, in a series of steelTalks we launch today through steelunivesity.org.

This will showcase companies recognised for their exceptional commitment and excellent practices that transformed the culture and landscape of safety and health in their organisations.

While we have achieved remarkable gains since the beginning of our safety improvement journey, we still have a long way to go.

Fatalities and life-altering injuries remain unacceptable; improvement is becoming harder. This is partly because the risks that dominate such incidents are now concentrated in high-risk, high-energy, non-routine activities with highly unpredictable environments.

These don’t respond to procedures, rules or training alone.

Ensuring a high level of planning quality and system integrity is important to manage these risks well. This includes clear identification of critical controls and continuous assurance of their performance and effectiveness.

The industry needs to move towards modern approaches like human and organisational performance (HOP) and potential serious injuries and fatalities (PSIF) thinking.

worldsteel members clearly see the benefits in these approaches, agreeing that focusing on preventive action based on potential outcomes was the most effective way to reduce fatalities and life-altering injuries at their sites.

We were very proud to publish last year an update to worldsteel’s safety and health principles: Guidance book reflecting this evolving understanding and maturity in the industry. We continue to support members through our role as the focal point for learning and exchange across the industry.

The steel industry observes this day as worldsteel Day for Safety and Health. It’s a day for us to reflect on the progress we have made, things that worked and those that didn’t and to reaffirm our commitment to strengthen our efforts to ensure safer and healthier workplaces.

This day coincides with International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s World Day for Safety and Health at Work. This year, the ILO has chosen to focus on ensuring a healthy psychosocial working environment.

This is equally important for the steel industry and we plan to strengthen our efforts in this direction with a new expert group focused on health and wellbeing. Please refer to worldsteel’s occupational health fundamentals to read about existing best practices from worldsteel members in this area.

On this worldsteel Day for Safety and Health, I encourage my peers and leaders in the industry to keep learning and sharing, and continue to drive improvement through our active engagement and visible leadership on the shopfloor.

Looking at our members’ efforts, I’m confident that we will continue to make progress in ensuring each one of our workers goes home safe and sound.