[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] POSCO has restarted part of the blast furnace at the Pohang Steelworks, which had been halted due to Typhoon No. 11 'Hinnamnor'.
POSCO announced on the 11th that it had normally restarted Blast Furnace No. 3 at Pohang Steelworks from the 10th, among Blast Furnaces No. 2, 3, and 4, which had been suspended since the 6th due to flooding.
Earlier, on the dawn of the 6th, Pohang Steelworks was flooded and experienced power outages in most areas, including KEPCO's power supply facility, the substation, due to heavy rainfall of up to 500mm and the overflow of Naengcheon Stream, resulting in a halt in operations.
After successfully draining molten iron from Blast Furnace No. 3, POSCO plans to resume normal operations of the remaining Blast Furnaces No. 2 and 4 as early as the 12th.
Additionally, from this day, POSCO began operating the No. 1 converter at the 3rd steelmaking plant and will focus on restoring steelmaking (the process of removing impurities from molten iron) and continuous casting (the process of producing slabs from steelmaking molten iron) facilities to process the molten iron produced in the blast furnace.
Due to the flooding of the nearby river (Naengcheon Stream), most underground facilities were submerged, causing the greatest damage to the rolling line (the process of processing steel by applying heat and pressure). Drainage and mud removal work are currently underway. POSCO stated that accurate damage assessment and restoration and operation of the rolling line will be possible only after the underground facility restoration is completed.
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