Dongbu Steel’s Great Progress at 27

Steel mill installs the biggest electric furnace at Dangjin Works to expand steel output to 10 mln tons annually

Chairman Kim Joon-ki of Dongbu Steel Co. said the company’s annual production capacity will be increased to 10 million tons to become the largest steel mill with electric furnaces from its current capacity of 3 million tons.
In his statement on the occasion of the steel mill’s 27th anniversary, Kim said the company’s aim is to be a global steelmaker, not satisfied with its current steel production capacity.
This year is a tough one for every business due to the global economic slump, but the company bravely took its first step toward becoming an integrated steel mill, a very significant move for the company. The company invested a total of 864 billion won to be able to produce hot-coil and cold-rolled steel plates, turning itself into an integrated steel maker. The company set a record by building an upward steel production process to make raw materials for cold-rolled steel plates, which no steel plant in the world has attempted yet.
Kim said it was only because of the entrepreneurial spirit and innovative moves by those concerned with the project in the company. He said the launching of an electric furnace makes up the first stage of the company’s plan to produce 10 million tons of steel products annually.
The electric furnace went online in July, but the company held a comprehensive ceremony o n Nov. 11 to mark the company becoming the third steel maker in the country after POSCO and Hyundai Steel to produce crude steel and cold-rolled steel plates.
This year, the company will produce 600,000 tons of hot-coil steel products and by 2011 the company will expand its steel production to 10 million tons annually by expanding its steel-making facilities under its long-term vision. “We have prepared our own vision for the expansion of the company’s steel production capacity down the road,” said the chairman.
Kim also unveiled his intention to fight the steel market slump and intensified competition head on. He said Dongbu Steel is faced with a number of adversities including uncertain prices of raw materials, turbulent currency exchange rates and reductions in demand for steel products brought about by the worldwide recession. He said, “The company is going through a tough period with its will and capacity to beat the challenges being tested.”
“Businesses are bound to face difficulties during their lives. Sometimes, they are opportunities as well as crises and Dongbu Steel should see the crisis of today as an opportunity to boost its competitive strength,” he said.
Kim went on to urge that plans should be drawn up thoroughly to secure global-level manpower and systems to run the steel mill and raw materials should be bought at the lowest possible prices and steel products sold at the highest possible prices.
Dongbu Steel manufactures some 2.7 million-tons of various steel products annually with its production bases at the Asan Bay Works, Incheon Works and Pohang Works. It also boasts of being the worlds most competitive company in the cold-rolled high strength steel sheet sector.
In particular, the Asan Bay Works (cold-rolling mill), established in 1999, is the world’s first steel plant to automate the whole process from production to logistics and is touted as a “dream plant” by steel experts at home and abroad thanks to its optimal cost competitiveness.
With such achievements as the foundation, Dongbu Steel made a foray into the electric arc furnace steel making and hot rolling business in 2007, enabling it to independently supply hot-rolled steel sheet, the raw material for Dongbu’s flagship product, cold-rolled steel sheet. As a result, Dongbu Steel has transformed itself into an integrated steel producer that makes mass production of hot-rolled steel sheet to cold-rolled steel sheet possible, taking a leap forward to fulfill its goal to become the world’s best steel company.
“We will diversify Dongbu Steel beyond steel and iron products. We are now positioned to become the world’s leading steel product provider using our first-class technology,” Chairman Kim said. nw

A scene of Dongbu Steel’s new electric furnace dedicated at the company’s Dangjin Works, in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province Nov. 11.

Chairman Kim Joon-ki of the Dongbu Group, gives a speech at the dedication ceremony of the electric furnace at Dangjin Steel Works.