POSCO's
Proud Achievements

Giant steel maker looks back at its miraculous track record of past 4 decades

POSCO, the 5th largest steel maker in the world, celebrates its 40th anniversary on April 1. On that day in 1968, 39 'steel fighters'led by Park Tae-joon, founder and honorary chairman of POSCO, formed the steel company determined to build a blast-furnace steel mill, the first one in Korea, to make contribution to the development of the Korean industry by producing steel products.
The steel maker's history is short compared to other leading steel producers in the world, but the Korean steel giant overtook many other steel makers in the world to be where it is now.
The steel maker has been a huge credit for the development of such key industries as automobile, shipbuilding, electronics and construction by supplying high- quality and yet inexpensive steel products, and these industries have all become leading industries in the world, thanks to the steel products supplied by POSCO.
When the initial moves to build a steel mill were launched, many said it was a big gamble because of the lack of such elements including steel-making technology, experience, and resources, totally unprepared to undertake such mammoth project.
Former President Park Chung-hee and Founder Park found the breakthrough in Japan. The ex-president instructed the cabinet ministers participating in the 3rd Korea-Japan cabinet ministerial meeting held August, 1969, to ask for funds totaling $73.7 million from the Korea Claim Fund against Japan and a commercial loan amounting to $50 million from Japanese commercial banks bringing total funds to $123.7 million to build the first steel mill in Korea. The fund amounted to 'blood money'as it was part of the fund that Japan paid to Korea to reimburse for its colonial rule of Korea from 1910 to 1945.
The Japanese fund also showed founder Park's strong determination to build a steel mill even with such Japanese funds.
When the first stage construction was finished in 1973, POSCO ranked only around the 70th in terms of steel output in the world, additional construction completed in 1998 and the following year made POSCO a top steel maker in the world. Through mergers and acquisitions by other lesser steel makers such as Mittal Steel dropped POSCO to the 4th in 2000 and POSCO began to look overseas to build steel plants since then.
Korea's steel giant is building a blast-furnace steel mills in India and Vietnam and the plans are being delayed by local residents protests, but POSCO officials said the plans will proceed as planned to meet their target of raising the steel production by POSCO to 50 million tons annually.
POSCO has not had a year with deficit in its operation since its launching, which is attributed to its superior management. The company overcame the oil shock at the end of '70s and foreign exchange crisis and downturn in steel demand in '90s unscathed. POSCO has been able to sustain its growth momentum through its excellent crisis management.
Some of the reasons for POSCO's healthy management include the reduction of the production process by eliminating two stages boosting the economic viability and the development of a new steel production process by POSCO called, 'finex'for the first time in the world, which drastically reduced pollution causing material in the steel production process. The steel maker started to actually put into use the finex system in its production process since May last year. nw

A view of POSCO's steel production facility.