International Steel Mills
Posco Plans Electrical Steel Production for North America
Written by Laura Miller
July 13, 2023
South Korean steelmaker Posco has big plans to increase its global production capacity, including the making of electrical steel in North America, according to local media reports.
The Korea Times reported that Posco is planning to “build additional hyper non-oriented electrical steel factories in Korea and North America to produce 1 million tons of electrical steel worldwide.”
Posco’s “Better World with Green Steel” plan was unveiled on Thursday, July 13, at the company’s headquarters in Pohang, South Korea. Perfecting its low-carbon steel technologies will be a main focus for the steelmaker, according to the Korea Herald.
The company, whose current overseas crude steel production capacity is 5 million metric tons per year, also plans to double that capacity by 2030, with additional production facilities in the works for North America, Indonesia, and India, the Herald said.
Posco currently operates two galvanizing lines in Altamira, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
Posco did not immediately respond to SMU’s request for comment.
There is room in the US market for additional production of electrical steels.
Trade groups along the electrical steel value chain recently urged President Biden to help increase domestic production due to rapidly rising demand and limited domestic availability. According to the groups, “Shortages of domestic electrical steel are contributing to significant and persistent supply chain challenges across our industries.”
Cleveland-Cliffs is a domestic producer of both grain-oriented and non-grain oriented electrical steels (GOES and NGO or NOES).
A new non-grain oriented (NGO) electrical steel line is currently being prepped for a third-quarter start-up at U.S. Steel’s Big River Steel plant in Arkansas for the production of its InduX™ NGO steel. That line will have an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons.
By Laura Miller, laura@steelmarketupdate.com
Laura Miller
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