South Korea’s steelmakers celebrated the 25th “Day of Steel” on June 9. The Day of Steel was designated by Korea’s Iron & Steel Association in 2000 to commemorate the day the country’s first steel was produced by POSCO’s Pohang Steelworks, Korea’s first modern blast furnace.
“You have accomplished a feat that will go down in history, and you are a lifesaver to me,” the late POSCO Chairman Park Tae-joon said to the workers who successfully lit the blast furnace for the first time on June 8, 1973. The first iron was poured at 7:30 a.m. on June 9, 21 hours after the fire was lit.
POSCO’s steel production sparked notable progress in Korea’s domestic industries, facilitating the construction of large ships and the manufacturing of various vehicles. In June 1974, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries launched Korea’s oil tanker, the Atlantic Baron, using POSCO’s thick steel plates. Hyundai Motor Company developed the country’s first indigenous vehicle model, the Pony, in the same year.
Domestic steelmakers have recently been struggling with China’s aggressive low-cost offensive. China has been exporting steel at cheap prices to boost its sluggish economy. According to the Korea Iron and Steel Association, 4.21 million tons of Chinese steel plates were imported between January and April this year, up 104% compared to the same period last year.
Korean steelmakers are seeking differentiation strategies in response to cheap Chinese exports, such as developing eco-friendly and high-value-added products. Steel giant POSCO plans to gradually transition its existing production methods to establish a hydrogen-based steelmaking system. Hyundai Steel aims to build a production system that can churn out 5 million tons of low-carbon steel products by 2030 and introduce a low-carbon product brand, HyECOsteel.
“For the Korean steel industry to survive in the long-term, it is crucial to speed up the development of carbon-reduction technologies and specialize in low-carbon products in the global market,” said a steel industry official.
