As part of its commitment to the highest safety and health standards, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) recognises excellence in six of its member companies for delivering demonstrable improvements in safety and health.
Shalini Kumari, Manager, Safety and Health, said, “I would like to congratulate and thank all participating companies for their continued dedication and efforts towards safeguarding their people. As in previous years, the jury faced a difficult task due to the outstanding quality of submissions. We noticed a stronger focus on leadership engagement, management of potential serious injuries and fatalities (PSIFs), ergonomics, and integration of psychological wellbeing with physical fitness. Smart connected systems integrating robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and real-time monitoring and alerts continue to play a key role in reducing serious injuries and catastrophic incidents at member facilities.”
The recognised companies this year are:
For safety culture and leadership
InfraBuild – Risk excellence through integration of physical and psychological safety
InfraBuild developed an enterprise-wide framework that integrates psychological and physical safety, recognising that strong safety performance depends on trust, leadership accountability and proactive risk management. The initiative combined executive-led HSE principles, leadership development, workforce participation, critical control management and mental health programmes to create a culture where employees feel confident speaking up about risks. The result was a shift from compliance-driven behaviour to openness, learning and shared ownership of safety. Employee trust and willingness to speak up increased significantly, alongside improvements in leadership capability, safety engagement and injury performance, demonstrating a scalable model for high-risk industries.
For occupational safety management
JFE Steel Corporation – A deployable machine safety system integrating interlocks, human detection, and safeguarding to eliminate fatality risk
JFE Steel redesigned its approach to machine safety by focusing on engineered controls rather than relying solely on human behaviour. The company introduced a three-layered protection system consisting of interlock keys on access doors, AI-based human detection cameras and reinforced physical guarding. Together, these controls prevent entry into hazardous zones, automatically stop equipment when people are detected and physically block access to danger points. The system has also been adapted for legacy equipment where full isolation is not possible. The integrated approach has helped eliminate fatalities from caught-in and entanglement accidents since 2018.
For occupational health management
Mobarakeh Steel Company – Pre-employment psychological fitness-for-work and early support programme
Bringing psychological wellbeing into the recruitment process, Mobarakeh Steel Group established a structured psychological fitness-for-work programme. Standardised psychological assessments are combined with confidential professional interviews and, where appropriate, specialist clinical review. Rather than relying on test results alone, employment decisions consider the requirements of individual jobs and may involve support measures, task matching or reassessment. With confidentiality and multidisciplinary oversight embedded in the approach, the programme demonstrates a preventive way of identifying psychological fitness considerations early while supporting both worker wellbeing and occupational safety.
Nippon Steel Slovakia s.r.o. (NSSK) – Reducing physical workload and fatigue risks of crane operators
To tackle musculoskeletal and fatigue-related risks among crane operators, NSSK used physiological workload measurements, ergonomic assessments and video analysis to identify key sources of physical strain. Improvements included ergonomic seating and controls, camera systems designed to reduce torso rotation, changes to work organisation, employee rotation, health surveillance and vibration-reduction measures. The combined interventions reduced muscle loading and unacceptable working postures, illustrating how evidence-based ergonomic assessment and targeted engineering and organisational measures can make demanding industrial work more sustainable.
For process safety management
POSCO – In-house vision AI development to help prevent safety incidents
POSCO developed an in-house vision AI system to address safety challenges in steelmaking environments where workers and molten-metal transport vehicles cannot always be physically separated. Conventional sensors proved unreliable in harsh operating conditions, while commercial AI systems lacked the flexibility needed for deployment. Using existing CCTV infrastructure, internal servers and open-source software, POSCO created a solution that detects and responds to seven high-risk scenarios. Preventive barriers automatically stop equipment when hazards are identified, while mitigative barriers detect early warning signs of process failures and trigger corrective actions. The system improved process safety performance without requiring additional capital investment.
Tata Steel Limited – Strengthening barriers through real-time early warning and escalation system for preventing high-consequence process incidents
Tata Steel implemented a real-time monitoring, alert and escalation system designed to strengthen process safety barriers and prevent major incidents. The system continuously tracks critical process parameters, detects deviations from safe operating limits and identifies issues such as instrument failures, abnormal data patterns and interlock bypasses. Alerts are escalated dynamically based on severity, frequency and duration, helping ensure timely intervention and accountability. In addition to providing independent monitoring during control-system overrides, the platform maintains a digital record of alerts and actions for traceability and continuous improvement. It has transformed process safety management from passive monitoring to proactive risk control across multiple high-hazard departments.
More details on each of the initiatives can be found in worldsteel’s Safety and Excellence Recognition 2026 publication.
The names and affiliations of the external judges for this year’s safety and health excellence recognition are as follows:
- Jasper Smit, Resilium
- Jan Hoenselaar, Independent consultant
- Henk Reimink, Independent consultant
- Mick Cassar, Independent consultant
- Paul Brooks, Independent Consultant
- Duane Duhamel, ISN
- Scott Shinn, Giridhar Rao, Stacy Blundell, Shari F. Smith, 3M
- Enio Viterbo Junior, Independent consultant
- Carlos Martinez, Independent consultant
- Craig Kirby, Ferroglobe
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Notes
- The World Steel Association (worldsteel) is one of the largest and most dynamic industry associations in the world, with members in every major steel-producing country. worldsteel represents steel producers, national and regional steel industry associations, and steel research institutes. Members represent around 85% of global steel production.