July 2006 — Posco will increase its annual capacity for high-quality plates production by 1,100,000 tonnes by 2009.

As Korea’s demand for plate continues to increase, Posco decided to increase investments and improve technologies in its three existing plate facilities at the Pohang Works. With the upgrades, Posco will increase its annual plate production from 3,600,000 tonnes to 4,300,000 tonnes in 2008, and ultimately to 4,700,000 tonnes in 2009.

For the upgrades, Posco will replace the accelerated cooling facility for plates and install a high-capacity cooling adjustor at the 3rd Plate Plant. The company also plans to actively utilize new technologies, including the technology to increase TMCP steel productivity based on continuous pressure-rolling technology.

By doing so, Posco will provide about 500,000 additional tonnes of TMCP steel for shipbuilding, plates for marine structures or plants, and API products that have been imported from Japan or elsewhere due to the insufficiencies of local production. Korea’s ship-building industry is expected to consume up to 6,000,000 tonnes of plates this year. As Korea’s current production capacity is 4,000,000 tons, Korea needs to import about 2,000,000 tons. Korea’s shipbuilding industry is expected to continue to grow through at least 2015.

As Korea’s ship makers will focus on producing high value-added vessels, such as large-scale containers and LNG/LPG transporters, TMCP and other high-quality plates will experience increasing demand. Also, Korea’s companies are constantly commissioned to establish large-scale petroleum and gas plants in the Middle East and participate in marine structure establishment projects abroad. In result, an increasing amount of API products and other thermo-treated steel components are needed for heavy industries.

Based on the expectation for continued growth in demand, Posco plans to increase its plate production capacity and expand high-quality steel production through constant technological innovation.