POSCO will continue its global practice as a corporate citizen by creating GEM matching fund No. 2 with an overseas raw material supplier following last year.
POSCO signed an agreement to create the GEM matching fund No. 2 at the POSCO Center in Daechi-dong on Feb. 24, with Yoo Byung-ok, head of POSCO's purchasing and investment division, Ernie Thrasher, president of Xcoal, and Kim Hyung-soo, CEO of Tree Planet in attendance.
Xcoal is the largest U.S. exporter of coal for steelmaking and supplies about 1 million tons annually to POSCO. Tree Planet is an eco-friendly social enterprise that is engaged in a project to create forests to reduce fine dust.
The GEM matching fund was POSCO's first global matching fund established between steel and mining industries after declaring corporate citizenship in July last year. It created the No. 1 fund (fund name: Opal, Australia's most popular jewelry) with Australian coal supplier Yancoal in November last year.
Under the agreement, the two companies plan to contribute a total of $100,000 worth of funds every year in a one-on-one matching grant method, like the No. 1 fund, and support each other's community in turn for one year.
This year, the first year of operation of the No. 2 fund, about 60 executives and employees from both companies will visit the site of the wildfire damage in Okgye, Gangwon Province, in April and conduct a forest restoration project with local residents to plant and manage 11,000 trees on about 4 hectares of land.
POSCO plans to expand its matching fund program to other suppliers of raw materials overseas in the future to strengthen the creation of sustainable symbiotic value with stakeholders.
