South Korea largest steelmaker Pohang Iron and Steel Company (POSCO) has announced that it broke ground for the construction of its third Finex steel mill on June 28.
POSCO will invest KRW 1.3 trillion ($1.2 billion) for the project, which will have a designed annual capacity of 2 million mt. Upon completion of construction in July 2013, the total capacity of POSCO's three Finex mills will reach 4.1 million mt, accounting for 25 percent of its total crude steel production. POSCO said the new facility in the southeastern Korean city of Pohang will allow it to cut costs by an additional KRW 177.2 billion annually from 2013.
The Finex technology, jointly developed by POSCO and Austria-based plantmaker Siemens VAI Metal Technologies, allows for the use of low-cost iron ore fines and non-coking coal and reduces hot metal production costs by approximately 15 percent compared with the blast furnace method.