POSCO will strengthen technical cooperation with Exxon Mobil to expand the application of the world's first mass-produced high manganese steel to the global market, the company said on Oct. 7.
POSCO and Exxon Mobil held a business tie-up ceremony to develop high manganese steel and accelerate its application to the global market by connecting Exxon Mobil RE (Research & Engineering Co.) of New Jersey and Exxon Mobil URC(Upstream Research Co.) of Texas with POSCO Research Co.
The signing ceremony was carried out on a non-face-to-face online basis due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lee Deok-rak, CEO of POSCO's Institute of Technology, Tristan Aspray, CEO of Exxon Mobil URC, and Vijay Swarup, vice president of Exxon Mobil RE, promised to cooperate in developing technologies to expand the application of high manganese steel to overseas LNG projects.
The attendance of RE executives, which are in charge of basic research of materials, and URC executives responsible for field application of new materials provided an opportunity to accelerate commercial development of high manganese steel.
The two companies will first push for the application of high manganese steel for cryogenic use to storage tanks to be built on the global LNG project that Exxon Mobil will place in the future.
The high manganese steel was approved by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy last year to use materials for land LNG storage tanks (KGS AC115) and applied for the first time to Gwangyang LNG storage tank No. 5, proving its performance and stability.
At the ceremony, Tristan Aspray, CEO of Exxon Mobil, said, "We look forward to strategic and long-term technical cooperation by bringing together Exxon Mobil's expertise in metal-use technology and POSCO's world-class steel technology."
Cryogenic high manganese steel is POSCO's unique patented technology and was listed as a standard by the Korea Industrial Standards Association (KS) in 2014 and the ASTM and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
