Posco chief to visit CES in quest for digitization

Kwon Oh-joon

CEO Kwon Oh-joon of Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco will visit the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week in the hope of accelerating the digitization of its steel mill and to catch up with the latest developments in the automotive and electronics industries.

It is the first time a Posco CEO has participated in the world’s largest electronics and IT exhibition, held in Las Vegas for four days starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday local time, or 2 a.m. Wednesday in Korea.

While automakers have already become the new focus of the electronics and IT festival due to the latest developments in Internet of Things and self-driving technology, the major steel supplier is also interested in digitization in the hope of securing a competitive edge.

Posco has a special interest in smart factory platforms and Kwon plans to meet with experts from GE including Matthias Heilmann, President and Chief Executive Officer of Digital Solutions at Baker Hughes, a GE company, during his visit to Las Vegas. GE has been operating its own smart factory platform dubbed “Predix,” and Kwon hopes to discuss ways to make the platform compatible with Posco’s smart factory platform “PosFrame.”

Also, as Posco began the commercial production of lithium carbonate, a basic material necessary to make lithium-ion batteries for electric cars, last year, Kwon plans to catch up with the latest trends in electric cars and batteries.

Kwon is looking for business opportunities for Posco affiliates as well.

Posco’s IT services and engineering arm Posco ICT and California-based DPR Construction will ink a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on smart construction.

BY KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]