POSCO to Expand Business With Toyota
By Jane Han
Korea Times Correspondent
ALTAMIRA, Mexico ― More than half a year after POSCO first won a supply contract from Toyota, the South Korean steel giant is now close to ramping up its business with the Japanese auto powerhouse with a more diverse product mix and longer contract periods, the company CEO said Thursday.
``We're going to continue seeking new ways to work with Toyota,'' POSCO CEO Chung Joon-yang told reporters ahead of the firm's auto steel sheet production plant completion ceremony in Altamira, an industrial city north of Mexico's capital.
POSCO plans to introduce some of its newest auto steel products to Toyota in Japan through a closed-door expo this October, company officials said, an opportunity for POSCO to increase its supply range to the world's No. 1 auto maker.
Toyota began buying steel from POSCO for the first time starting early this year for a limited period, as part of the company's measures to cut costs amid the global recession that dampened demand for cars across the board.
The deal was a strategic win for the Korean firm, which has been revving up investment in the auto steel business that focuses more on value-added products. The supply contract with Toyota also helped POSCO raise its profile as a premium steel maker because of the Japanese maker's long-running picky selection procedure.
``Many automakers around the world have shown more interest in our products after our connection with Toyota,'' said Chung, who stressed that POSCO is the only steel producer in the world feeding steel products to all 15 major car makers, including Honda, Nissan and Volkswagen.
POSCO's annual production of steel sheets for cars totaled 6.5 million tons last year, with the lion's share of the products used for domestic auto production and the remainder shipped to overseas plants.
``We're in talks to secure a more long-term and stable contract term with Toyota,'' Oh Chang-kwan, POSCO's senior marketing officer, said without elaborating further.