1Commitment Committee

Prior to the selection of projects, a Commitment Committee evaluates the various aspects of the project (technical, financial, contractual, etc.) and issues resolutions to be applied during the negotiation and execution of the project.

More than 160 committees were organized in 2021.

2Contracting, trade & export finance

And still before even signing the contract, the contracting teams always review the contractual clauses, the payment terms and the bank guarantees, and work out possible financing solutions.

They handled nearly 400 files in 2021.

3Insurance

250 insurance policies

representing approximately 12 million Euros in annual premiums, cover the Group against risks of all kinds. The number of claims is decreasing year by year. In 2021, 52 claims were handled, compared to 111 in 2018.

4Back to profitability

’Back to Profitability‘ is a mechanism that is activated when certain activities show signs of structural non-profitability.

In 2021, 9 entities benefited from a tailor-made assistance plan

(improvement of design, digitization, simplification of processes and organization, etc.), the cumulative implementation of which should lead to a return to break-even from 2022.

5Financial partners

The commercial, technological and geographical diversification of the Group has led to the need to expand our network of financial partners. At the end of 2021, the Group can count on

15 major financial players,

i.e. 3 times more than the previous year; each being consulted according to their area of expertise.

6Cybercrime

Faced with the omnipresence of cybercrime, John Cockerill has taken this risk fully into account and invested in a vast prevention plan. Over the last six months of 2021, thanks to the installation of filtering and blocking systems and staff awareness programs,

John Cockerill identified and destroyed 143 types of malware.

The vigilance of employees, supported by the 2 240 e-learning sessions they have followed, has made it possible to identify as spam or fishing 51% of e-mails received.

7Health security

Preventive measures in the areas of physical safety are now well established, in particular through the conduct of regular audits, safety talks in the field or the organization of the Group Safety Day. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, health prevention has been added to the agenda, piloted by a dedicated unit for the past two years. Prevention measures combine the layout of offices and workshops, the provision of tests and prevention equipment and, of course, widespread awareness-raising among staff about the importance of adopting new types of behavior.

In 2021 there were only 3 contamination outbreaks recorded at John Cockerill

8Internal audit

One of the principal missions of the internal audit is to evaluate the risk management processes. The team launched an extensive risk mapping program in 2021, involving many group players.

Of the 170 risks identified, the 25 with the highest priorities were assigned to an ’owner‘, who is in charge of deploying the actions designed to control them.