Yoon: "POSCO Expected to Play a Strong Driving Role in Korea's Industrial Development"

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol visited the No. 1 blast furnace at Gwangyang Steelworks on the 21st and encouraged on-site employees together with Choi Jeong-woo, Chairman of POSCO Group.

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[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol visited POSCO Gwangyang Steelworks, the world's largest steel plant.

On the 21st, President-elect Yoon visited Gwangyang Steelworks and held a meeting with Kim Young-rok, Governor of Jeollanam-do, Choi Jeong-woo, Chairman of POSCO Group, and Kim Hak-dong, Vice Chairman of POSCO. He also visited Gwangyang No. 1 Blast Furnace to encourage the employees.

Chairman Choi explained, "POSCO has been selected as the 'World's Most Competitive Steelmaker' for 12 consecutive years, and in 2019, it was recognized as the first domestic 'Lighthouse Factory' by the World Economic Forum, leading the future of global manufacturing, establishing itself as a world-class steel company."

He continued, "Especially this year, we transitioned to a holding company system to expand future business discovery and achieve balanced growth at the group level," and introduced, "Going forward, POSCO Group will expand its business areas beyond steel, the 'rice of industry,' to include secondary battery materials, lithium, nickel, and hydrogen, transforming into a 'leading eco-friendly future materials company,' and ultimately contribute to the economic leap of the Republic of Korea."

President-elect Yoon said, "I have visited Pohang Steelworks twice, but today is my first time at Gwangyang Steelworks," and encouraged, "POSCO has always been a mainstay in the development of Korean industry, and since our country's four major exports are automobiles and shipbuilding, which are two sides of the same coin of the steel industry, I believe and expect that our steel industry will play a strong driving role in realizing the 4th Industrial Revolution, carbon neutrality, and all these goals together with Korean industry."

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Gwangyang Steelworks is the largest single steel plant in the world and aims to be the 'Global No. 1 Automotive Steel Specialist Steelworks' based on world-class automotive steel sheet technology.

Last year, it produced about 8.2 million tons of automotive steel sheets. Considering that the global annual automobile sales volume is about 80 million units, this means that one out of every ten cars used automotive steel sheets produced by POSCO.

Meanwhile, the No. 1 blast furnace visited by President-elect Yoon on this day has cumulatively produced 120 million tons of molten iron since its first molten iron production in April 1987, and was reborn as the world's largest blast furnace (6,000㎥) through equipment maintenance in 2013.

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