Posco fills Shell thick plate order

Posco, the nation’s largest steelmaker, said yesterday it had supplied all the thick plates used in construction of Shell’s prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) substructure, which will be the world’s largest floating facility.

After 14 months, the company said it completed delivering 27 types of thick plates, which weighed a total of 150,000 tons, for Shell’s gas development project. That accounts for 58 percent of the total metal used.

The FLNG is currently being built by Samsung Heavy Industries at Geoje, South Gyeongsang, after a $3 billion order in 2010.

The facility is 468 meters (1,535 feet) long, 74 meters wide and 100 meters high.

The weight of the FLNG will be about 600,000 tons when tanks are filled and all instruments installed, according to the company. The prelude FLNG facility will produce and liquefy 3.5 million tons of gas per year.

Posco said it has been closely working with Samsung Heavy Industries to develop low-temperature-use steel plates for the bulkhead and using welding procedure qualification tests (WPQT).

This is the second time Posco is supplying all the thick plates used for one project. The company delivered all the plates for Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering’s Floating Production Storage & Offloading (FPSO) facility in February.

Posco said its steel plate technology was again recognized by global customers like Shell, highlighting that its steel plates have high corrosion resistance in deep seawater and enough strength to lift the facility.

“We have been investing on R&D for energy structural steel plates since 2000 and our effort has paid off,” the company said in a release. “Previously, only several steelmakers in Europe and Japan have been taking the projects, but we are moving forward with our technology.”

Posco said it is trying to develop 60 types of energy structural steel plates. It will also cooperate with affiliates like Posco E&C and Daewoo International to supply steel materials and aims to reach a share of 10 percent of the energy structural steel plate market by 2020.

BY JOO KYUNG-DON [kjoo@joongang.co.kr ]