POSCO on a Roll

Korean steel giant completes 1.2 million-ton cold-rolled steel plant in Vietnam, steel plant in Pittsburgh

POSCO completed construction of the largest cold-rolled steel sheet plant in Southeast Asia in Vietnam. With the completion of the plant, POSCO has established a firm steel manufacturing and sales base to cover many countries in Southeast Asia.
POSCO will receive hot-rolled steel materials necessary for the Vietnam cold-rolled steel factory from the Pohang and Gwangyang Steelworks as well as Nippon Steel Corp. The high-quality cold-rolled steel products manufactured in the factory will be supplied to the whole of the Southeast Asian region through steel processing centers in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
POSCO opened the 1.2 million-ton capacity cold-rolled steel factory in the Pumi Industrial Complex of Vung Tau Province, near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s economic center, with approximately 500 personnel in attendance including Chairman Chung Joon-yang, Minister Vu Huy Hoang of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and other major Vietnamese figures, as well as Consul General Kim Sang-yun, and other Korean and local corporate leaders.
In the opening speech, Chairman Chung said, “The Vietnam cold-rolled steel factory houses the most up-to-date technology and can contribute to upgrading the demands of Vietnam and the Southeast Asian market by manufacturing and providing high quality steel materials. We will try our best to strengthen our client companies’ competitiveness and become a bridge for economic cooperation between Korea and Vietnam.”
Minister Vu Huy Hoang said in his congratulatory speech, “This is the largest factory by scale in Southeast Asia and will contribute greatly to the steel industry as well as the development of related industries. I would like to thank POSCO for investing in Vietnam at just the right time.”
The construction of the factory began in August 2007, taking 26 months to complete with total investments of approximately $528 million. The land including harbors totals 158 hectares.
POSCO is planning to manufacture 700,000 tons of cold-rolled products used for automobiles and motorcycles, and 500,000 tons of cold rolled strip full hards used for high-quality building materials for a total of 1.2 million tons to be sold in Vietnam and the Southeast Asian region. With the growth of Vietnam’s industries, the annual demand for high quality cold-rolled steel is estimated to reach 1.5 million tons by the year 2015, but last year’s supply was only 730,000 tons, showing a heavy reliance on imports. POSCO expects to strengthen its status and market dominance in the region, as well as gain a competitive advantage over Japanese steel companies by meeting the demand for high quality cold-rolled products in the Southeast Asian region through the factory, contributing to the region’s growth.
Once POSCO completes the 3 million-ton scale hot-rolled factory and 40,000 ton-scale CGL factory after 2012, the company will have Vietnam’s largest down-stream steel manufacturing facilities and expects to lead the region’s high quality steel material market.
In the meantime, POSCO also dedicated its joint venture steel plant for steel for energy transportation pipe lines in Pittsburgh on Nov. 2 in a joint venture with US Steel and SeAH Steel. The steel pipe plant built by the United Spiral Pipe Ltd., a joint venture firm by POSCO,SeAH Steel and US Steel, will be abel to turn out 270,000 tons of spiral pipe steel per year. Steel plates will be as large as 26 inches thick and North America is one of the largest markets for those spiral steel plates in the world.
Chairman Chung, at the dedication ceremony at the plant, said The new plant will be able to meet the increased demand for spiral steel plates in North American, which has been growing rapidly in recent years. POSCO and US steel will supply hot-rolled steel to the new steel plant.
Meanwhile, POSCO participated in the ‘Vietnam-Korea Week’ event held in Hanoi, noting the economic cooperation between Korea and Vietnam and POSCO’s role. Also, the POSCO Cheongam Foundation delivered scholarships to Vietnamese college students and also held a goodwill soccer match between the Jeonnam Dragons and Vietnam’s national team. nw

A group of dignitaries push buttons to put online a joint venture steel plant in Pittsburgh, the United States, built by United Spiral Pipe Ltd., set up jointly by POSCO, U.S. Steel and SeAH Steel on Nov. 2. Among the dignitaries are POSCO Chairman Chung Joon-yang and SeAH Steel Chairman Lee Woon-hyung.