AFV Acciaierie Beltrame SPA

Acciaierie Ferriere Vicentine: the name encapsulates the entire history of a company founded in 1896 thanks to the will of its founder, Antonio Beltrame, who, having arrived in Vicenza, chose to dedicate himself to working on barrel hoops, horseshoes and carriage-wheel rims, before moving on to mechanical repairs, small carpentry with a forge and the manufacture of nails from wire rod.

With the first developments of his business, the founder immediately proved to be an attentive innovator. He grasped the advantages of electrical energy over thermal energy and invested, year after year, in the growth of the workshop, adding foundry, wire-drawing and punching departments, up to the hardware store. Within a few years, the Premiato Stabilimento Meccanico a forza elettrica con Fonderia Antonio Beltrame established itself quite rapidly for its expertise and quality. In the first decade of the twentieth century, the Beltrame plant produced steam engines, compressors, pumps, bridges, canopies, transmissions, and systems for mills and industrial plants.

Soon, however, it opened up to an increasingly broad market, with attention to the organizational model, to innovations and technical progress, to work ethics and to a primitive but effective form of corporate welfare. All characteristics maintained with the growth and internationalization of today’s company.

The correspondence between the family name and the company – which at the time also represented a physical contiguity between factory and home – in addition to the participation and contribution of all family members, made it possible to merge the culture of productivity, quality and change with a deep-rooted spirit of belonging.

This last aspect led to a harmonious synthesis between the culture of the family business and the characteristics of the managerial company, which fuels the spirit with which the Beltrame management today interprets business and its growth, combining tradition, progress, modernity and improvement.

The Acciaierie Ferriere Vicentine Beltrame have gone through three industrial revolutions, and today have become a leading international steel company: AFV Beltrame Group.

There are three plants located in Italy: Vicenza, San Giovanni Valdarno (AR) and San Didero (TO).

The Beltrame Group considers respect for and protection of the safety and health of workers and of the environment in which its plants are located to be fundamental principles to be observed in carrying out its activities. This vision is implemented by favouring dialogue with employees, providing them with adequate training and continuous awareness-raising and involvement.

The Vicenza headquarters has the task of harmonizing the activities related to the management of Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) issues, defining the lines of action, monitoring their application and coordinating the activities carried out in the individual Italian and foreign plants. In each plant, specifically trained and dedicated resources are assigned to managing these activities.

It is the Group’s will to follow these principles:

• integrate the concepts of environment, occupational health and safety into corporate management;
• assess in advance the risks of every work activity carried out within the Group’s sites, in order to implement adequate actions capable of preventing accidents or occupational diseases and in any case to minimize, as far as technically possible, the severity and probability of such events;

• comply with laws and other requirements voluntarily subscribed to, in environmental, worker health and safety matters, through continuous updating activities and prompt verification of compliance with the required obligations;
• foster continuous and effective communication with all interested parties (employees, customers, contractors, suppliers, bodies, institutions, citizens) and information/training, where required, in relation to health, safety and environmental issues, in order to ensure an adequate level of awareness;
• constantly monitor, for continuous improvement, the environmental aspects and residual health and safety risks, using appropriate control tools and monitoring systems.

On the basis of these principles, the Group develops programmes oriented towards the continuous improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of its processes and systems, defining objectives and targets to:

• promote the reduction of the risks of accidents and occupational diseases, and the health and safety at work of all personnel;
• pursue the reduction of its significant environmental impacts (atmospheric emissions, waste production, energy consumption and water consumption).

In this context, the Group has made, in recent years, important investments, both in plant and in the development of human resources.