Hyundai Steel Ignites 2nd Blast Furnace

Steel mill expands output capacity to 20 mln tons annually for import substitution of $8 bln

Hyundai Steel Co., an affiliate of Hyundai Automotive Group, ignited its second blast furnace at its steel plant in the Dangjin Industrial Complex in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, on Nov. 23, to bring its total annual output of steel to 20 million tons at the plant.
The steel plant’s annual production capacity will rise to the 8th largest in the world with the new blast furnace turning out 4 million tons of steel for automakers in addition to the 4 million tons of steel produced annually by the first blast furnace that has been in operation since January.
Present at the ignition ceremony for the blast furnace were some 500 people including national and local government officials and Hyundai Steel officials led by Chairman Chung Mong-koo and Vice President George Lasell of Paul Wurth Co. of Luxemburg, which designed and built the blast furnace.
In his speech, Chairman Chung said the new blast furnace is the product of all officers and staff of Hyundai Steel and related cooperative firms who worked together to build the facility over the past 29 months. The steel mill will turn out high-quality steel products for industries that need those steel products, ranking the steel mill among the 10 largest in the world.
The high-quality steel products will be supplied to automakers, home appliance makers, construction firms and machinery makers, among others. The first blast furnace produced 2.5 million tons of hot coil steel plates annually and 1.5 million tons of steel for shipbuilding, construction and for other industrial uses.
Hyundai Steel’s increased steel production will have an $8 billion steel import replacement effect annually and the company is considering building a third blast furnace capable of turning out 4 million tons of steel annually in line with Chairman Chung’s ambitious plan to make Hyundai Steel the top maker of steel for cars in the world.
Also, the chairman has proven that his speed management works by completing the new blast furnace following the dedication of the first furnace in January to increase the annual steel output from blast furnaces to 8 million tons, adding to the 12 million tons of steel output from the electric furnaces at the plant.
He has also been able to make up for his losses in an open bidding for Hyundai Construction, which his late father launched. It’s long been a dream of the Chung family to build a steel mill. The late Chung, founder of Hyundai Group, missed his plan to take over the rights to build a steel plant in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, to POSCO in 1978. Later, in 1994, his plan to build a steel mill on Kadok Island off Busan met with government disapproval for a feared glut in the steel output capacity of Korea.
Like his father, Chung wanted to go ahead with his plan to build a steel mill in Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province, which also did not materialize due to government fear of a steel glut. But in 2004, Chung took over the bankrupt Hanbo Steel in Dangjin and started to build an integrated steel plant.
An integrated steel plant produces crude steel with iron ore from a blast furnace and makes steel products from the crude steel. In 2006, a ceremony was held to build an integrated steel plant in the same complex where Hanbo Steel plants were located by adding blast furnaces, which until last year had only electric furnaces producing 12 million tons of steel annually. nw

Chairman Chung Mong-koo of Hyundai Automotive Group ignites the new second blast furnace completed at Hyundai Steel Co. plant in the Dangjin Industrial Complex in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province in a dedication ceremony held on Nov. 23.; An aerial view of Hyundai Steel plant in the Dangjin Industrial Complex in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province.