POSCO, First Steel Company to Approve 'Production Plant for Wind Power Thick Plates'

Certified as Wind Turbine Material for 'Renewable Energy Steel Factory' and Uniform Yield Strength Thick Plate Products from DNV Denmark

POSCO held a plaque awarding ceremony on the 26th to commemorate the Gwangyang Steelworks Heavy Plate Plant being approved by DNV as the first global steel company production plant for heavy plate products used in the wind power industry. (From left) Lee Young-chun, Head of Heavy Plate Department at Gwangyang Steelworks; Park Eul-son, Head of Energy Shipbuilding Marketing Office; Kim Sung-jun, Deputy Head of Process Quality at Gwangyang Steelworks; Baek Young-min, Head of Renewable Energy Certification at DNV Korea Branch. Photo by POSCO

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seoyoon] POSCO announced on the 26th that it has been approved by DNV, a prestigious professional certification body in the energy sector, as the first global steel company to operate a production plant for wind power steel plates. DNV is the world's largest specialized technical institution in the energy sector, certifying safety through technical evaluation from materials to design, focusing on energy, oil & gas, and shipbuilding & offshore industries.

According to POSCO, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with DNV in March to establish a cooperative system for wind power approval of steel products and began the certification process. DNV conducted an intensive on-site inspection and evaluation over three months of the quality management system, production processes and facilities, product testing equipment, and related certifications at the Gwangyang Steelworks plate mill producing eco-friendly Greenable steel plates, and approved it in July as a "renewable energy steel plant." Greenable refers to POSCO's integrated brand of eco-friendly and high-performance steel products and solutions applied in the production, transportation, and storage of future eco-friendly energies such as wind power, solar power, and hydrogen.

Additionally, POSCO’s Gwangyang Steelworks was certified for the world's first uniform yield strength steel plate product of the "EN-S355" grade as a "material for wind turbines." POSCO’s uniform yield strength product is the first steel plate product certified by DNV for renewable energy steel.

Recently, as wind towers have become larger, it has been common to increase plate thickness to support structural loads. However, POSCO’s uniform yield strength steel plate for wind towers can maintain a strength of 355 MPa up to a thickness of 100 mm, enabling approximately a 3% reduction in steel usage when applied to wind towers of 10 MW or higher capacity.

Wind tower turbine designers were previously constrained to design based on yield strength by thickness as specified in European standard regulations. This certification establishes an institutional foundation allowing POSCO’s steel plates with uniform yield strength characteristics to be incorporated into structural design.

In particular, since the manufacturing cost difference compared to conventional standard steel is not significant, it provides a solution to respond to increased material demand due to wind turbine scaling and rising raw material prices. It is also expected to meet the wind industry’s recent demand for reducing production costs per unit of power.

At the certification plaque awarding ceremony, Park Eulson, Head of Energy Shipbuilding Marketing at POSCO, stated, “We plan to establish a supply system for high-performance steel plates for wind power, including those for substructures with enhanced performance besides towers,” and added, “We expect customers to reduce steel usage for towers and substructures by about 10% under the same design conditions in the future.”

Recently, the wind energy market has been growing rapidly at an average annual rate of about 6.6%, centered on offshore wind power. POSCO plans to actively capture the rapidly increasing global offshore wind steel demand based on the technology and solution marketing demonstrated in the offshore plant market, while contributing to reducing customer carbon emissions through continuous development of eco-friendly customized steel.

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