[Sponsored Report] Posco takes on steel belts around the globe

On May 31, Posco CEO Chung Joon-yang (right) met with GE Chairman Jeffery R. Immelt and signed an MOU to cooperate in five fields.

Posco is seizing the world market, where the demand for steel is continuously rising, unlike the local market. Posco CEO Chung Joon-yang presented his guidelines for advancing overseas as “producing products near the market, where the customer is, and producing metal near the mine, where the resources come from.”

For this, Posco is currently working to construct steel mills in Indonesia and Brazil; build more factories for the continuous galvanizing line, pickling and cold-rolling process; and make more manufacturing centers to provide products to automobile manufacturers, shipping companies and electronics companies in China, Vietnam and Mexico.

Posco has increased the arena for its business activities in 2010 from the local market to the global market with strategies that entail a so-called “U Line,” “I Line” and “A Line.”

Posco’s major projects in the U Line of Middle Asia, Southeast Asia and China have thus far involved: establishing a joint venture with UKTMP and starting the construction of a titanium slab producing factory in Kazakhstan, acquiring shares of TSML in Pakistan, starting construction for steel mill in Indonesia, constructing a cold-rolled sheet factory in Vietnam and starting a CGL (Continuous Galvanizing Line) in China.

The I Line includes North America, Central America and South America. Posco had already set up Posco’s first overseas production site, UPI, with U.S. Steel in 1986.

CEO Chung also has a keen interest in Africa, an A Line that is rising as a resource hub. Congo and three countries, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa, form the A Line and are the places that Posco must enter to secure natural resources.

Posco will also be strengthening its energy generation business. On May 31, CEO Chung met with GE Chairman Jeffery R. Immelt and signed an MOU to cooperate in five fields, joint electricity generation projects in domestic and foreign markets, development of structural steels used in the energy sector and joint manufacturing of various equipment, joint infrastructure projects in emerging markets, cooperation in ICT (information and communication technology), and benchmarking of management case studies related to human resource development and training.

By Lee Ji-hyun [concordia@joongang.co.kr]