[New Year's Message] CEO Andongil: "Seeking Survival by Building 'Profitability' Instead of Scale Growth"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Andong-il, CEO of Hyundai Steel, stated, "We will eliminate the inertia of focusing solely on scale growth and establish a corporate identity as a ‘profitability-centered solid steel company’ to prepare for the future while seeking survival."

In his New Year's address on the 4th, CEO Ahn said, "We will focus on three strategic measures: optimizing business structure and facility operations, strengthening responsible management, and securing a foundation for future growth."

First, CEO Ahn said, "The various product lines and external scale that we have considered our own competitiveness so far can no longer act as strengths in the current management environment," adding, "We must devote ourselves to strengthening manufacturing competitiveness through a profitability-centered business structure and optimal facility operations that can support it."

He also mentioned last year's key issues, 'COVID-19' and 'surging raw material prices,' emphasizing that a rapid decision-making system is crucial to survive in an era of uncertainty.

CEO Ahn said, "A rapid decision-making system acts as a key factor determining the rise and fall of an organization," and added, "By introducing a responsible management system for each business, we must respond swiftly to the rapidly changing management environment and build a work infrastructure suited to the new decision-making methods."

As the third strategy, CEO Ahn stated the need to pay attention to new fields. He said, "We must establish strategic partnerships with advanced steel companies and secure overseas local supply chains through these partnerships," adding, "We must prepare for the rapidly changing future through continuous exploration and consideration of future businesses such as mobility parts and the hydrogen industry."

Along with this, he emphasized 'safety' and 'ESG (environment, social, governance) management.'

CEO Ahn said, "Recently, as social interest and demands for safety have been increasing day by day, safety has become a necessity rather than an option for us," and urged, "To create a safe workplace, we must establish a safe working environment through improvement activities for high-risk tasks, and a voluntary safety culture where all employees comply with safety regulations and practice safety activities must be established."

He continued, "Carbon neutrality is an unavoidable important task even in the steel industry," adding, "In all areas of our work, each division must discover and carry out practical tasks to realize carbon neutrality."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.