Hyundai Steel announced on Jan. 19 that green bonds, one of the ESG bonds issued as part of its eco-friendly management, were successful.
As a result of Hyundai Steel's prediction of demand for institutional investors for the issuance of "green bonds" worth a total of 250 billion won on Jan. 18, a total of 2.7 trillion won was collected, more than eight times the expected amount.
The company said it is considering increasing the issuance of corporate bonds to 500 billion won. Except for financial firms, Hyundai Steel is the first to issue ESG bonds in the Hyundai Motor Group.
Green bonds are one of ESG bonds issued for social responsibility investments such as environment, society, and governance, limited to environmental activities such as carbon reduction, building energy efficiency, renewable energy, electric vehicles, and funding renewable energy projects.
Hyundai Steel is planning to spend all of its procurement money on the Green project by maturity in line with the purpose of the bond.
"Hyundai Steel's management and operating system are clearly maintained and transparent," said the Korea Investors Service, which conducted Hyundai Steel's green bond certification evaluation.
"The green bond management system, including the company's project evaluation and selection procedures, fund management, post-report and disclosure, and the company's environmental and social controversy, are in accordance with the ICMA principle."
"Hyundai Steel is working hard to carry out eco-friendly management at an enterprise-wide level," a company official said. "We will continue to implement eco-friendly responsibility management that puts environmental factors first in management decisions."
Meanwhile, Hyundai Steel has established a large-scale investment and technology development plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As part of the plan, the company plans to use the procurement funds for the introduction of Coke Dry Quenching System (CDQ), de-sulfurization of exhaust gases and quality improvement.
CDQ is a facility that produces coke from coal materials and cools it during the steel process. Hyundai Steel has so far used a Coke Stabilisation Quenching System (CSQ) using cooling water, but it has a disadvantage that it cannot utilize waste heat generated during the cooling process. As a result, it replaced CSQ with CDQ. The company is expected that this will not only reduce environmental risks but also increase energy efficiency.
