| POSCO Chairman Choi Jeong-woo / Courtesy of POSCO |
By Park Jae-hyuk
POSCO has been making various efforts to make a new leap in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the steelmaker said Thursday.
It will invest 45 trillion won ($40.3 billion) and hire 20,000 by 2023, as part of a bid to upgrade its steel capacity and contribute to society.
POSCO Chairman Choi Jeong-woo said the group came up with the investment plan to "take a pre-emptive step to lead the global steel industry and the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the manufacturing sector."
For steel, the company will invest 26 trillion won to automate the No. 3 blast furnace of its Gwangyang Steel Mill by applying artificial intelligence, expanding facilities exclusive for its Giga Steel and establishing power generation facilities using byproduct gases.
For its new growth businesses, the group will invest 10 trillion won to enhance its technology and capacity for secondary battery materials. In the pipeline is upgrading lithium-extracting technologies and building new factories for lithium, anode and cathode materials using synthetic graphite.
To create greater synergy, POSCO decided to merge POSCO Chemtech and POSCO ESM, each of which produces cathode and anode materials.
It also reformed its organizational structure and hired experts outside of the company as top executives.