POSCO International to transform into green company by 2030

POSCO International Corp., the general trading and energy exploration unit of South Korea’s steel giant POSCO Holdings Inc., on Thursday unveiled its vision to transform into a green company by 2030.

The company, which earlier this year absorbed its unlisted affiliate POSCO Energy Co. to reinforce its energy exploration and production value chain, also said it aims to raise its enterprise value to 23 trillion won ($17.5 billion) by 2030 from the current market capitalization of 3.8 trillion won.

“Carbon neutrality will be the name of the game at POSCO Group. We’ll turn into an eco-friendly company by 2030,” Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo said at a ceremony marking the merger of POSCO International and POSCO Energy.

The merged entity will strengthen its business portfolio covering steel, food and battery materials as well as its mainstay eco-friendly energy business, he said.

Specifically, POSCO International plans to accelerate its overseas energy business by developing extra offshore mining fields in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Through such efforts, the company expects to secure 2.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas in Southeast Asia by 2030, up from the current 1.6 Tcf.

SEVEN GROWTH DRIVERS

It will also expand its projects to construct liquefied natural gas storage tanks at its LNG terminals in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province. It aims to raise the LNG storage capacity fourfold to 3.14 million kiloliters by 2030 from 730,000 kiloliters now.

In the steel sector, the company plans to double its steel product output to 3.9 million tons by then.

It also plans to increase its annual production capacity of drive motor cores, a key component of electric vehicles, to 7 million units by 2030 to secure 10% global market share. The company recently agreed to supply the product to Japan’s Honda Motor.

In the food business, it aims to strengthen its supply chain in North America and Australia while seeking to enter the food processing business there.

POSCO Group earlier this year announced seven business sectors to drive its future growth, including battery materials, hydrogen, energy, food and steel.

Write to Mi-Sun Kang at misunny@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.