Joint Steel Project in China

POSCO, SeAH Steel to build steel wire plant near Shanghai to break into Chinese auto parts market

POSCO and SeAH Steel Corp. have jointly taken steps to advance into China's market for high-quality steel wire for automobiles by breaking ground on Nov. 14 for their steel wire assembly plant in Nantung, Jiangsu Province, near Shanghai, POSCO said recently.
The steel wire processing plant will be capable of annually turning out 50,000 tons of cold heading quality (CHQ) steel wire for automobiles when completed next October at a cost of $25 million.
POSCO China Inc. holds a 25 percent stake in the plant, and SeAH Steel maintains the other 75 percent of the joint venture. In this partnership, POSCO will provide a steady supply of CHQ steel wire, and SeAH Steel will process the wire with its unique technologies. SeAH will supply the product to Korean and global Chinese auto parts plants on a gradual basis.
The deal will increase POSCO's production of CHQ steel wire, and will boost its chances to secure a large share of the steel wire market in China.
The steel wire market in China is likely to grow rapidly as such world famous automakers as Volkswagen and General Motors plan to expand their auto production.
On hand at the ground breaking ceremony were Lee Seung-whi, president of SeAH Steel Corp., Kwon Seok-chul, chief of POSCO's marketing office in China, POSCO Director Park Ki-young, and a group of officials from the Nantung Industrial Complex.
In the meantime, POSCO Construction and Ssangyong Cement jointly developed a concrete with 200 megapascal (MPa) strength, and used it at the Metapolis building in Dongtan, near Seoul. They used 120 MPa concrete for a 66-story building in the Songdo International Business Complex. POSCO Construction used a pump-type method to transfer the concrete to the tall building's forms. When using the pump method, unlike using buckets, the material can easily get mixed with air and become soft. Therefore, the key to successful pumping is to keep the concrete in the same condition during transport, after proper mixing.
POSCO set a domestic record by using the 120 MPa concrete in the 66-story building in the Songdo complex. This beat the record set in Japan using buckets to transfer concrete in 49-story building.
POSCO Construction recently had its credit ratings upgraded by Standard and Poor's and Moody's. The company got a BBB+ rating from Standard and Poor's and a Baa1 rating from Moody's in their latest evaluation of the company's financial and operating conditions, making the company tops among the Korean builders operating overseas. Before the upgrade, the company's BBB credit rating still led all other construction firms in the country.
POSCO Construction will be able to borrow funds at lower interest rates than before, now that its credit rating has improved further, a big help to the company in its overseas operations.
Twenty-nine Chinese employees of POSCO China recently returned to their country after getting training at POSCO steel complexes in Pohang and Gwangyang. They are locally hired POSCO employees working in the marketing and product service sections in the steelmaker's operations in China, and their training focused on sharpening their respective professional skills. They were divided into two groups, with one group training at the Pohang steel plant and the other group at the Gwangyang steel complex from Sept. 6-9.
They began the training at the Product Technology Dept. of POSCO China from Sept. 12-14 in Beijing and Shanghai. From Sept. 20-21, their training took place in Tianjin and Qingdao, China. Their education continued at POSCO's home complex from Oct. 6-9.
POSCO expects that the trainees will be able to achieve better results due to the training they got in theory as well as on jobsites, making them better prepared to perform their marketing and product services duties.
A trainee said he will be able to perform his work much better when he goes back to China, thanks to the training he got both in China and Korea. He said he would like to be a professional marketer with a full knowledge of POSCO's new steel products. nw

Officials of POSCO, SeAH Steel Co. and Nantung City at a ground-breaking ceremony for a joint-venture steel wire plant between POSCO and SeAH Steel near Shanghai, China, Nov. 14. On the Korean side were Pres. Lee Seung-whi of SeAH Steel and POSCO Director Park Ki-young.