POSCO is top steel plate producer

By Kang Seung-woo

POSCO has become the world’s top producer of steel plate after building a new facility in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province Monday.

According to the steel giant, it completed the steel plate plant with an annual capacity of 2 million tons at Gwangyang steel mill after breaking ground on July 2008 to reinforce its steel plate production facilities.

Steel plate is a sheet over 6 millimeters thick, used in manufacturing of large container ships or liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessels.

The addition of the steel plate plant has catapulted POSCO to the biggest manufacturer of the metal with a total production of 7 million tons past Japanese and Chinese rivals. POSCO currently produces 5 million tons of steel plate at its Pohang Steelworks.

As of last year, JFE Steel Corp. was the world’s No. 1 steel plate maker with 5.5 million tons, followed by Nippon Steel Corp. and Bosan Steel of China at 5.2 million tons and 4.8 million tons respectively.

“With the completion of the plant at Gwangyang Steelworks, POSCO has become the undisputed global No. 1 company in terms of production of steel plate,” POSCO Chairman Chung Joon-yang said at the ceremony for its completion.

“We will try to greatly soothe the supply shortage suffered by Koreans such as shipbuilding or heavy industries and stretch supplies for high-quality products while building global competitiveness.”

According to POSCO, last year’s local demand for steel plate stood at 11 million tons and 4 million tons of it were filled by imports. But the new facility is expected to slash imports to 2.7 million tons this year, with the substitution effect likely to reach 1 trillion won.

POSCO believes that it will be able to help local consumers including shipbuilders and automakers, hit hard by the massive earthquake that crippled production at some steel mills in Japan.

Korean shipbuilders are estimated to import around 600,000 tons of steel plates annually from the neighboring country, approximately 25 percent of their total consumption for ship construction.

Key Japanese steelmakers have halted operations at some of their facilities because of power outages caused by the 9-magnitude quake on March 11.