[Column] Qualifications of POSCO Chairman as a Future Energy Company Leader

'With Posco' sculpture at the POSCO building in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

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"The POSCO chairman must understand the core steel business," "Then, should Samsung understand sugar? That’s an anachronistic way of thinking."

These are the remarks circulating ahead of the final decision on POSCO's next chairman scheduled for the 8th. That afternoon, the POSCO Holdings CEO Candidate Recommendation Committee (Candidate Committee) is set to finalize and announce one final candidate for the next POSCO chairman. With the six finalists revealed, stakeholders’ interests and questions have centered on whether the candidates "understand steel." Coincidentally, three candidates are from steel backgrounds and three from non-steel sectors.

The POSCO labor union and the Citizens’ Countermeasure Committee for the relocation of POSCO Holdings headquarters to Pohang (Countermeasure Committee) have voiced in unison that "the next POSCO chairman must be a steel expert."

It is true that POSCO’s origin lies in steel. It was established carrying the public’s aspiration to "build a prosperous nation." POSCO leads the global steel industry and serves as a strong ally to Korea’s upstream industries.

However, POSCO is now beginning to blossom as an energy company built upon its steel roots. Last year, the non-steel segment (eco-friendly materials, infrastructure, etc.) accounted for about 49% of POSCO Group’s revenue, catching up with the steel segment. This year, non-steel revenue is expected to surpass steel. POSCO’s position in the mineral and energy supply chain has transformed to an unparalleled level. POSCO mines lithium ore (spodumene) in Australia and extracts lithium from salt lakes at 4,000 meters above sea level in Salta, Argentina. It also mines and refines key minerals such as nickel. POSCO has become one of the world’s few companies specializing in rare mineral mining and refining. In the raw material supply chain ecosystem dominated by China, POSCO is virtually the only domestic competitor. As the battery industry grows and supply chain competition intensifies, POSCO’s efforts to secure raw material supply chains will prove invaluable.

Amid these changes and competition in the global industry, the question that should come before "Do they understand steel?" is "Where does POSCO stand?" or "Where should POSCO go?" This is the expectation the public places on the process of selecting the next chairman of the "national company" POSCO.

Jung Dong-hoon, Industrial IT Department Photo by Jung Dong-hoon

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