Relations with our customers and suppliers
The Company builds relationships of trust with its suppliers, such relationships are of critical importance for its Sustainable Development, as the suppliers on the one part provide raw and auxiliary materials, equipment and services, all indispensable for the development, production and distribution of competitive products.
Management of the supply chain
The Company selects and manages its suppliers in a responsible manner. Suppliers are a significant group of stakeholders, since they provide raw and other materials, equipment and appropriate services which are the necessary components for the development of products. The Company, as the party that acquires the products and services, meets its obligations responsibly and takes such actions as will have a positive effect on the supply chain.
The handling of daily issues connected to supplies at Sidenor Steel Industry and Sovel is carried out electronically, through an integrated application of the SAP platform. The use of this application has improved the times required for the processing of supplies and it has allowed instant updating of their status. The possibilities for further improvement provided by the application are numerous and it is expected that in the future these will be used even more effectively.
As to quantitative information about suppliers, the total number of Sidenor Steel Industry and Sovel suppliers is 1,082, with 61% corresponding to suppliers from the domestic market and the remaining 39% from the international market. The number of suppliers the Company has worked with in the past three years, along with the distribution of suppliers according to the geographic area they (domestic and international) come from is shown in the following charts.
Evaluation of suppliers and subcontractors
The evaluation of suppliers is an integral part of the efforts our Company makes to continuously enhance its products and services. Suppliers fall into two categories: Suppliers of materials and equipment and service providers (subcontractors). Having diverse evaluation approaches is considered very important as it makes the evaluation process more relevant to each relationship and therefore more effective and efficient.
The basic steps followed in each case, irrespective of the type of supply involved, include the following:
1.Initial evaluation of the supplier
- Organisation of the Company
- Customer base
- Quality / Environmental protection / Health and safety system
- Quality of the material produced
- Response times
- Service and support
- Prices and financial terms
- Environmental, health and safety: performance
2.Assessment questionnaire
- Quality / Environmental protection / Health and safety system
- Standard/ Certifying body
- Issuing of certificates of conformity and/or test reports
- Appropriate labelling of materials (e.g. batch number)
- Written instructions for the production, packaging, warehousing and loading of materials
- Performance of appropriate actions in case of non conformity
- Identification and management of issues relating to environmental and health and safety impacts
- Approval of supplier
- Revision of the list of approved suppliers
- Annual review of the supplier