On January 7, POSCO started construction of an automobile steel plate plant in Tangshan city, Hebei Province, China.
In September last year, POSCO sets up an automotive steel sheet joint venture with China's Hebei Iron And Steel and China's HBIS to produce and sell plated steel sheets for automobiles in China.
POSCO and HBIS plan to build a plant in the economic development zone of Laoting County and the plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2023 and will produce plated steel sheets with an annual capacity of 900,000 tons.
The groundbreaking ceremony was held online with the presence of POSCO Group Chairman Choi Jung-woo.
"The joint venture must fulfill its role and responsibilities as a global automotive steel sheet producer that leads the environment," said Chairman Choi. "Please upgrade the level of automotive steel sheet production innovatively based on the high professional technology and experience possessed by both companies."
At the end of last year, HBIS acquired Guangdong CGL with an annual production capacity of 450,000 tons operated by POSCO in Guangdong Province, China as a subsidiary, and has a production capacity of 1.35 million tons.
Hebei Iron And Steel is the second largest steel producer in China and the third largest in the world, producing 44 million tons of crude steel as of 2020, and is included in the Fortune Global 500 along with POSCO.
With this cooperation as an opportunity, POSCO is expected to establish a stable supply system in response to the continuously growing demand for automotive steel in China.
Meanwhile, China is the world's largest automobile producer, producing 25 million units, or 32% of global automobile production in 2020. It is expected to continue to grow as the world's largest automotive steel sheet demand market going forward.
