POSCO Pohang Steelworks Enters 'Normal Operation System'... Steel Industry's Heart Pulsates with Vitality

Adhering to the Customer-First Management Principle

POSCO Pohang Steelworks faced an unprecedented situation when the Cheongcheon River overflowed due to Typhoon Hinnamnor on September 6 last year, causing the entire steelworks to be flooded.

However, on January 19, the 135th day after the flooding, they achieved the miracle of ‘complete normalization of operations’ and carried out various activities to minimize damage to customers even in this unprecedented situation.

Unloading POSMAC products from POSCO that arrived at the Ajusteel factory. [Image source=POSCO Pohang Steelworks]

Among the 17 factories flooded by the Cheongcheon River overflow, the Pohang Steelworks’ Coating CGL factory and Stainless Steel factory, which were the last to be restored, supplied products to customers ‘Ajou Steel’ and ‘TMC,’ who were able to minimize damage thanks to POSCO’s customer-first management activities.

The Pohang Steelworks Coating CGL factory mainly produces PosMAC (POSCO Magnesium Aluminium Coating product), a product that significantly improves corrosion resistance using POSCO’s proprietary technology. Ajou Steel uses POSCO’s PosMAC to manufacture the lower structures supporting solar panels.

Since solar structures are exposed to external environments for a long time once installed, corrosion-resistant materials are essential. PosMAC is a ‘high corrosion-resistant steel’ that is more than five times stronger against corrosion than conventional hot-dip galvanized steel sheets, attracting attention in the solar market as well.

In response to this incident, POSCO established a Pohang-Gwangyang Steelworks Dual production system TF to consider alternative production of products in Gwangyang, thereby minimizing Ajou Steel’s damage.

TMC Executive Director Jeong Hee-tae is inspecting the quality of the manufactured products.

The stainless steel customer ‘TMC’ also minimized damage during the flood period thanks to POSCO’s win-win growth efforts.

TMC purchases stainless steel sheets from Pohang Steelworks and manufactures internal structures of LNG storage tanks used in liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers. These structures are based on proprietary technology held by the French company Gaztransport & Technigaz S.A. (hereinafter ‘GTT’).

Domestically, the Pohang Steelworks stainless steel factory is the only factory certified by GTT.

POSCO devised ways to convert export materials to domestic use as much as possible and utilize overseas production subsidiaries, and closely communicated with customers to secure steel materials that TMC could use immediately during the flood period, striving for customer-first management.

A POSCO Pohang Steelworks official said, “As production capacity and quality levels recover rapidly and the steel industry is generally revitalizing, POSCO will continue to make every effort to contribute to creating a robust industrial ecosystem based on the principle of customer-first management.”

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