POSCO Targets Global Market for Bridges and LNG Tanks

PC Steel Wire Produced with Goryeo Steel Registered in ISO

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] The PC steel strand standard made with PosCable, Posco's high-strength cable wire rod, has been registered as an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) international standard.

According to Posco on the 13th, after four years of collaboration with the Korea Iron & Steel Association and Koryo Steel, they succeeded in registering construction materials (PC steel strands) made with domestic materials and technology as the world's highest strength grade in the international standard, laying the foundation for opening overseas markets.

PC steel strand (Steel Strand for Prestressed Concrete) is a steel material inserted inside concrete structures such as bridge roads and LNG tanks to support heavy loads and ensure safety. The highest strength of the existing ISO standard PC steel strand was 1860MPa, but with the proposal from the Korea Iron & Steel Association, products with enhanced strengths of 2160MPa and 2360MPa grades have been registered as the highest strength standards.

2360MPa is a strength capable of withstanding 23 tons, equivalent to about 15 mid-sized cars, on a 1㎠ area roughly the size of a fingernail. The raw material for this PC steel strand is Posco's wire rod PosCable. Using the 2360MPa grade PC steel strand is expected to reduce construction material requirements by more than 20%, including not only the quantity of PC steel strands but also fastening devices and pipes, compared to existing products.

The registration of 2160MPa and 2360MPa grade PC steel strands as the highest grades in this international standard means that the possibility of applying PosCable to global projects requiring ultra-high-strength PC steel strands has increased. To this end, the Korea Iron & Steel Association, Posco, and Koryo Steel joined forces to promote the ISO revision project, which began in 2016.

Ultimately, the world's highest strength PC steel strand standard proposed by the Korea Iron & Steel Association to ISO went through a four-year journey, passing the final vote in October and being published as an international standard on November 30. Accordingly, a foundation has been laid for applying 2160MPa and 2360MPa PC steel strands to overseas projects, and there is potential for reflecting these standards in revisions of major countries' testing standards such as ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) and EN (European Norms). Posco plans to use this ISO revision as a stepping stone to support its customers' overseas expansion of PC steel strands while accelerating the development and sales expansion of PosCable technology that has been continuously pursued.

[Reference: Posco Newsroom]

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