Quality Management Award for Dongkuk Steel

Pohang Steel Complex clinches the Equipment Management Award

Chairman Chang Sae-joo of Dongkuk Steel said in his New Year message regarding management policies for the steel group that the steelmaker should have a risk management system, the creative reestablishment of the originality of its business, strengthen its means to cope with changes, and continue maintaining its core competitive edge. The chairman also declared the steelmaker's aim to make the Brazilian steel venture a great success, along with preparations for the group's survival for the next 100 years.The group unveiled its 2012 business tenets ― securing profitability, improving organizational operation, and enhancing productivity.
In the meantime, President Kim Young-chul in his New Year statement, said 2012 will be the decisive year for the steelmaker's future, calling for making reforms with confidence, approaching crises as opportunities, and not just walking toward an uncertain future, but dashing toward the future with courage.
The CEO spelled out three major points in the company's management strategy for this year including strengthening the capacity to predict the future, upgrading the ability to cope with crises, and expanding communications to make the organizational power stronger.
President Kim said he was extremely pleased when the company's Pohang Steel Complex in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, won the Equipment Management Award at the 37th National Quality Management Convention held on Dec. 13, last year, at COEX in southern Seoul, adding that Dongkuk Steel has been engaged in the production of steel products for 57 years and has made a huge contribution to the growth of the national economy.
Technologies and equipment that Dongkuk Steel imported for its steel production have become the standards in the steelmaking industry in Korea. The steelmaker will use the winning of the award an occasion to spur TPM activities and reset the system at the same time and step up quality management. "We hope the country will keep on watching Dongkuk Steel's progress toward the world as a steelmaker in the days ahead," Kim said.
The steelmaker traces its history back to July 7, 1954, with the launching of a small plant in Dangsan-dong, Seoul, and grew to be the largest privately-owned steel mill in Korea when it fired up its furnace at its plant in Yongho-dong, Busan, at a site created on reclaimed mud flats in 1963. The steelmaker continued to grow by expanding its steelmaking capacity by importing a new furnace in 1964; a 15-ton electric furnace in 1966; a 100-ton direct current electric furnace in 1993; a 140-ton twin basle electric furnace in 1999; and a 120-ton eco ark electric furnace in 2010, all for the first time in Korea, playing the role of the family patriarch for the steel industry in Korea with the spirit of being the first in everything it did.
Dongkuk Steel's 'do it first' spirit in both equipment and technology led the company to make reforms and renovations, which have been embedded in its corporate culture, spurring the company's march to be a top steelmaker in Korea by turning out top-quality steel products.
The steelmaker's capital amounts to 2.86 trillion won with annual sales revenue of 5.85 trillion won including 3.48 trillion won from the Pohang Steel Complex. Employees total 3,401 including 1,618 at the Pohang Complex. Operating profit in 2011 was projected at 242.5 billion won, exceeding 2010's profit of 215.6 billion won.
Dongkuk Steel, in a joint venture with POSCO and Vale of Brazil, are engaged in building a steel plant in Brazil capable of producing 3 million tons of steel annually with a total investment of $4.868 billion, through CSP (Companhia Sederugica do Pecem) Co., a joint venture firm set up by the three partners.
The blast furnace steel mill being built in the state of Ceara in Brazil is slated for completion in 2015. Dongkuk Steel's stake in the projected steel mill comes to 30 percent, Vale 50 percent, and POSCO 20 percent. Dongkuk Steel's investments will amount to $730 million, POSCO's $487 million, while Vale will provide land and iron ore in place of a cash investment in the project. About half of the required funds are planned to be borrowed, a major portion from Korea Development Bank, while the rest of the funds will be put up by the partners. nw

Chairman Chang Sae-joo of Dongkuk Steel Mill Co. shakes hands with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff during a dedication ceremony on Aug. 11, 2011, for the wharf Cais Song-Won named after the chairman's late father's penname near from where the projected joint-venture steel plant is being built in Ceara State in Brazil.

An aerial view of Dongkuk Steel's Pohang Steel Complex in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province.