Kosice, December 12, 2008 - The Christmas charity concert of U. S. Steel Kosice took place today at the State Theatre in Kosice. This concert was devoted to the children in foster homes in Secovce, Slovenske Nove Mesto and Dobsina, as well as to the patients of the East Slovakian Cardio-Vascular Institute in Kosice. In spite of the global financial and economical crisis, the Company management has made a decision to organize the Christmas concert to remind everybody that even in hard times people have to keep together, help each other and show which values are important for human life, especially love, care and giving.

U. S. Steel Kosice employees are familiar with the "Wishing Trees" that are placed around the plant in the time leading up to the Christmas holidays. They can always pick a card with a wish and fulfill it. Behind each card there is a child from a foster home. This time the wishes of children in three foster homes in Eastern Slovakia have been fulfilled. Besides toys, sport accessories and cosmetics, each foster home has also received financial support amounting to 250 000 crowns (8 298,48 EUR*).

The East Slovakian Institute for Cardio-Vascular Diseases in Kosice is also happy. More than eleven thousand steelmakers participated in the fund-raising, and the resulting sum was multiplied three times later, because the Company contributed the same amount of money, as well as the U. S. Steel Kosice Foundation. In total, the sum of 3 741 360 SKK was collected (124 190,40 EUR*), which will be used for purchasing an anaesthesiological unit. The Company employees have been supporting such public health projects for several years. They also consider it important to support the top specialists at the East Slovakian Institute for Cardio-Vascular Diseases, who can perform special diagnostics and provide good quality therapy using state of the art equipment. Based on the statistics, one in three Slovak people has some kind of heart disease. These diseases cause more than 50 percent of all deaths in Slovakia. The President of U. S. Steel Kosice George Babcoke handed over a symbolic check to Frantisek Sabol, Director of the East Slovakian Institute for Cardio-Vascular Diseases in Kosice.

The company´s charity activities also include a Christmas market hut on the Main Street in Kosice, which will be open between December 5 and December 23, providing space to seventeen not-for-profit organizations to present their activities and carry out fund-raising for their further development. The hut is run by volunteers who are either employees or students on scholarships from U. S. Steel Kosice.

The program of the Christmas concert featured performances by: Aneta Langerova, the vocal group Fragile, Marian Cekovsky and children from the foster homes, Petr Muk, the Japanese opera diva Yuko Oba and the Kosice State Theatre orchestra.

* converted in accordance with the official exchange rate 30.1260 SKK/1 €

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Further information:

Jan Baca
spokesman
U. S. Steel Kosice, s.r.o.
Tel.: +421 55 673 4476
Fax: +421 55 673 0330