SeAH Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Chairman Lee W.H. vows to keep SeAH Group going for another half century

SeAH Steel Co. celebrated its 50th anniversary on Oct. 19. At the ceremony on Oct. 18 at the Grand InterContinental Hotel in southern Seoul, Chairman Lee Woon-hyung said SeAH dug only one well, although many business firms have come and gone in the past half century of its operation, which has been producing steel pipes.
He said that it has been the pioneering and challenging spirit that kept the company going for 50 years, stressing that the steel pipe maker will continue to forge ahead for the next 50 years with the spirit of mutual help extended to its customers under just management.
Among the some 300 people present at the ceremony included Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry; consultant for POSCO and former Chairman Lee Ku-taik; Vice Chairman Park Seung-ha of Hyundai Steel; and Vice Chairman Han Gwang-hee of Dongbu Steel, among others.
In commemoration of the event, the steel pipe maker published a book tracing the 50 years of its history, along with a new emblem for the company. In addition, the company published its late founder Lee Jong-deok’s career in cartoon, titled “Leader In The Steel Pipe Production Industry,” and two CDs containing 34 opera arias personally selected by Chairman Lee, who was the first chairman of the National Opera.
SeAH’s history traces back to Oct. 19, 1960 for its beginning as Busan Steel Pipe Industry Co. The company became the first in Korea to export its steel pipes overseas in 1967 when the country still had no firm base for the steel pipe making industry.
In 1971, the company moved its head office to Seoul and began to see its business grow explosively. In 1996, the company changed its name to SeAH. As of May this year, the company’s accumulated steel pipe production totaled 20 million tons.
In 2000, the company started to set up its global operations by setting up a Chinese subsidiary, followed by one in the United States and production and sales operations in Southeast Asia. The company has been expanding its global operations lately. Last year, the company set up wholly owned subsidiary in the United Arab Emirates and began building a steel pipe plant in the northern region of the Middle East country at a cost of 55 billion won with the aim of going online in March next year.
In Vietnam, the company set up SeAH Steel Vina last year and made an additional investment to expand the annual production of steel pipes from the plant to 170,000 tons from the current 70,000 tons.
In November 2009, SeAH Steel set up a joint venture firm with POSCO and U.S. Steel to produce steel pipes in California with the annual capacity to produce 270,000 tons of steel pipes for the gas and oil industry.
Chairman Lee said, “We plan to link the global operation network from North America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa to build a base for the company to grow in the next 100 years and continuously invest in facilities at home and abroad in the future.”
In the mean time, SeAH Besteel has increased its capacity to produce special steel including steel pipes to 2.3 million tons annually with the completion of the expansion project at its Gunsan plant, making itself a top special steel producer in the world. The company spent 630 billion won for the expansion project, which expanded the plant’s special steel production to 2 million tons from 1.8 million tons.
The steelmaker, for the first time as an electric furnace steel producer, installed an RH steel refinement facility and other equipment such as major forging facilities to enable the plant to produce high-quality special steel products. The plant is now capable of turning out 100,000 tons of major forging steel products annually.
The new plant is also equipped with a large oil press, a brand new oil pressure type, much better than presses using water pressure. It will be able to produce the largest major forging products, as its working space is eight meters tall and seven meters wide.
The Gunsan plant is also equipped with a 150-ton electric furnace to supply crude steel for major forging products by turning out 350,000 tons of steel ingots. nw

Chairman Lee Woon-hyung of SeAH Group, left, is being congratulated on SeAh Steel’s 50th anniversary at a ceremony on Oct.18 at InterContinentalHotel in Seoul.