POSCO completes automotive steel plates plant in China

South Korea’s POSCO announced on Thursday it completed the new plant for automotive steel plates in Tangshan, Hebei province, China.

As a joint business with China’s HBIS Group, POSCO founded Hagang Pohang in September 2021 with shares split equally between the two in order to manufacture and sell auto steel plates in China. The two companies invested $300 million each, totaling $600 million. Having generated 44 million tons of crude steel as of 2020, HBIS is one of the world’s top 3 steelmakers, ranking second in China.

The Tangshan Plant 1 kicked off construction in January last year and has an annual production capacity of 450,000 tons. Plant 2, which has an annual production capacity of 450,000 tons, will be completed in May next year. 

At the end of 2021, Hagang Pohang acquired POSCO’s Guangdong CGL with an annual production capacity of 450,000 tons, and they generate about 1.35 million tons. 

POSCO Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo and POSCO Vice Chairman Kim Hak-dong participated in the opening event as well as HBIS Group Chairman Yu Yong, South Korean Ambassador to China Chung Jae-ho, Hebei Provincial Governor Wang Zhengpu, Secretary of the CPC Tangshan Municipal Committee Wu Weidong. 

"It is meaningful to inaugurate the world's top-level automotive steel sheet facility after we agreed to pursue a joint venture based on the high technical expertise and experience possessed by both companies in 2019," Chairman Choi said. "We look forward to leaping into a global automotive steel production company leading the future eco-friendly society."

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com