Choi Jung-woo "55th Anniversary... Expanding from Steel to 7 Major Businesses"

Visiting the Tombs of President Park Jeonghee and First Chairman Park Taejun
"Pledge to Become a Leading Eco-Friendly Future Materials Company"

Choi Jung-woo, Chairman of POSCO Group (POSCO Holdings), said on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the company's founding, "Our capabilities, which initially relied on foreign capital and technology, have now reached a level where we design the future of the industry and set its direction."

POSCO Group Chairman Choi Jung-woo is paying respects at the grave of the first chairman, Park Tae-joon, at the National Seoul National Cemetery on the 3rd.

In his commemorative speech on the 1st, Chairman Choi stated, "Our stage, which started in Pohang, now extends to Argentina on the opposite side of the globe, and we are expanding our business areas beyond steel to include seven core businesses such as secondary battery materials."

He continued, "The mission of steelmaking for national modernization has evolved into the management philosophy of corporate citizenship that grows together. Let us overcome the global complex crisis to secure future growth opportunities, complete a future-oriented flexible organizational culture to become a leading eco-friendly future materials company, and create real value management that generates true value economically, environmentally, and socially, to build a new future toward becoming a respected 100-year company together."

On the morning of the 3rd, Chairman Choi visited the National Seoul National Cemetery to pay respects at the graves of President Park Chung-hee and the first chairman Park Tae-joon.

In September 1967, President Park Chung-hee appointed Chairman Park Tae-joon as the person responsible for the construction of the steelworks and entrusted him with full authority over equipment procurement, sparing no effort to fully support the successful construction of Pohang Steelworks.

During the construction period, President Park visited the steelworks 12 times to encourage the executives and employees. At the comprehensive completion ceremony of the first phase of Pohang Steelworks on July 3, 1973, President Park said, "I am deeply moved by the completion of this ultra-modern steelworks, which will be the core and foundation of Korea's heavy and chemical industry development."

In particular, at Chairman Park’s grave, Chairman Choi delivered a memorial speech, recalling that despite the unprecedented flooding of most of Pohang Steelworks caused by the Cheongcheon River overflow due to Typhoon Hinnamnor last year, the company miraculously achieved full normalization in 135 days through the crisis-overcoming DNA and technological capabilities of its executives and employees, just as Chairman Park showed determination and perseverance whenever the company faced difficulties.

Chairman Choi said, "POSCO, which Chairman Park cultivated from barren land overcoming countless hardships, has grown firmly and is evolving beyond the world’s top steel company into a global leader in eco-friendly future materials. I will take the chairman’s last words, 'Grow bigger and become the world’s strongest POSCO. Work with patriotism,' as a teaching and lead the second founding as a global company representing Korea, contributing to national economic development to repay the chairman’s noble will."

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