POSCO to Promote Establishment of Electric Arc Furnace Plant in Gwangyang

Approval of New 2.5 Million Ton Electric Furnace at Gwangyang Steelworks

Transition to Low-Carbon Production System

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Heo Seon-sik] POSCO is establishing an electric arc furnace at the Gwangyang Steelworks and beginning the transition to a low-carbon production system.

POSCO announced that at the regular board meeting held on the 20th, it approved a plan to invest approximately 600 billion KRW to establish an electric arc furnace with an annual capacity of 2.5 million tons at the Gwangyang Steelworks.

Kim Hak-dong, Vice Chairman and CEO of POSCO [Photo by POSCO Gwangyang Steelworks]

The electric arc furnace investment is scheduled to begin construction in January 2024, aiming for full-scale operation starting in 2026.

Amid anticipated international decarbonization policy developments, specific carbon reduction demands from stakeholders, and increased demand for low-carbon products, POSCO has decided to promote the establishment of an electric arc furnace to transition to a low-carbon production system.

During the transitional phase until hydrogen reduction steelmaking technology is commercialized to replace the existing blast furnace process, POSCO plans to introduce the electric arc furnace to continue carbon reduction efforts.

This electric arc furnace investment is significant as POSCO's first tangible achievement toward carbon neutrality.

POSCO proactively responded to the global paradigm toward carbon neutrality by officially announcing its carbon neutrality plan?the first among Asian steelmakers based on large-scale blast furnace production systems in Korea, China, and Japan?declaring the goal of ‘2050 Carbon Neutrality.’ It plans to gradually transition existing production methods such as blast furnaces to hydrogen reduction steelmaking production systems.

By applying the hot metal mixing technology that directly utilizes molten iron produced in the electric arc furnace or mixes it with molten iron produced in the blast furnace, POSCO plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions compared to the existing blast furnace method.

In particular, by adjusting the mixing ratio, it is expected to enable the production of various grades of low-carbon products, allowing flexible responses to the requirements of each customer.

At the same time, although there were limitations in producing high-grade steel when using steel scrap in the electric arc furnace, the mixing technology is expected to make the production of low-carbon high-grade steel products possible.

Additionally, POSCO plans to improve energy efficiency by preheating and charging scrap using the off-gas generated during electric arc furnace operations.

Meanwhile, following the establishment of the carbon neutrality roadmap in 2021, POSCO plans to systematically implement the tasks based on this roadmap.

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