A Platform for Sharing Technology Development Achievements... '2022 POSCO Group Technology Conference' Held

On the 25th, the 34th POSCO Group Technology Conference Opens and the 'POSCO Technology Grand Prize' Award Ceremony Held

Grand Prize Winner... Jang Gi-cheol, Manager of Steelmaking Department at Gwangyang Steelworks, Receives Top Honor

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Heo Seon-sik] The largest festival for POSCO engineers, the ‘2022 POSCO Group Technology Conference,’ was held.

The POSCO Group Technology Conference, which began in 1989, marked its 34th event this year. It is a venue where technological development achievements and future technology trends in the steel and new business sectors are shared. The key technologies presented at the conference have been reflected in POSCO Group’s mid- to long-term technology development strategies, contributing to strengthening future technological competitiveness.

This year, as in the previous year, the number of offline attendees was limited to 50 considering the COVID-19 situation. Instead, 300 executives and employees participated online using Metaverse and Zoom, and all employees were able to watch through the company’s internal TV and PC live broadcasts.

At the opening ceremony held on the 25th at POSCO Center in Daechi-dong, Seoul, key technology executives including Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo, Vice Chairman Kim Hak-dong, and Jung Chang-hwa, Head of POSCO Holdings Future Technology Research Institute, as well as presidents of group companies such as POSCO Chemical and POSCO Construction, attended.

Chairman Choi Jeong-woo said in his opening remarks, “POSCO Group engineers can take pride in leading the future of the world’s most competitive company,” and urged, “Through continuous effort and bold challenges, please do your best in your respective positions so that POSCO Group can become a leading company in eco-friendly future materials.”

Following this, the awards ceremony announced the results of the ‘POSCO Technology Grand Prize,’ which included 10 awards such as 2 Innovation Awards, 4 Creativity Awards, and 4 Leap Awards, as well as the O&C (Open & Collaboration) Award. The grand prize went to Jang Gi-cheol, Manager of the Gwangyang Steelmaking Department, who established a ‘high-efficiency and flexible production system through continuous casting innovation.’ The O&C Award was given to Park Dong-cheol, CEO of WithMTech, who developed the technology to prevent surface oxidation defects in thick plates. The O&C Award is a special merit award given to external experts who contributed to POSCO’s technology development through collaboration.

In the final session, Dr. Joachim von Scheele, Global Technology Commercialization Executive of Linde, the world’s largest industrial gas company, delivered a keynote speech on ‘Hydrogen Use and Decarbonization Pathways in the Steel Industry.’ Dr. Joachim von Scheele presented directions for technological innovation to help POSCO maintain its core competitiveness and strengthen global leadership in response to the major transition to a low-carbon eco-friendly era.

Meanwhile, the ‘Technology Sessions’ held during the conference will be conducted separately by related departments in the second half of the year, considering the COVID-19 situation. The technology sessions are venues where everyone from field workers to executives participates to seek practical technological solutions. This year, in addition to existing sessions such as ironmaking, steelmaking, hot rolling, and thick plates, new growth sessions including secondary batteries, hydrogen, and AI have been added, making a total of 25 sessions.

Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Heo Seon-sik hss79@asiae.co.kr

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