'2023 Sobujang Root Technology Expo' 3-Company Joint Booth Promises Mutual Cooperation
Establishing a 3-Company Value Chain of Materials, Semi-Finished Products, and Finished Products to Revitalize the Market
Dongkuk Steel, SeAH Steel, and SeAH Changwon Special Steel have embarked on establishing a supply chain for the high value-added steel product "clad heavy plate," which is mostly imported to meet domestic demand.
On the 18th, Dongkuk Steel announced that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SeAH Steel and SeAH Changwon Special Steel for entering the nickel alloy steel (Ni Alloy) and clad heavy plate market.
The three companies set up a joint booth at the ‘2023 SoBuJang Root Technology Exhibition’ held at KINTEX in Ilsan, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi Province from the 18th to the 20th, and signed the MOU on the first day, pledging mutual cooperation.
Cladding is a bonding technology that combines different metals to leverage the advantages of each metal.
Clad heavy plates are used in the manufacture of high-strength, corrosion-resistant pressure vessels and line pipes for storing and transporting gases and liquids in the chemical and petroleum industries. Domestic demand is around 15,000 to 20,000 tons annually, but most of the supply relies on imports. Demand for domestically produced products with excellent delivery times and quality is expected to continue increasing.
Since there were no domestic steelmakers capable of supplying clad heavy plates, the entire supply has depended on imports. However, from 2020, over three years, Dongkuk Steel, SeAH Steel, SeAH Changwon Special Steel, and 15 industry-academia-research-government institutions have carried out government projects related to materials and components technology development, successfully achieving localization of the product.
Dongkuk Steel has completed the localization of steel grades and, to further stabilize the market, signed a memorandum of understanding with SeAH Changwon Special Steel, the material supplier, and SeAH Steel, the product manufacturer. The three companies plan to combine their core technologies to build a new value chain.
Under this agreement, SeAH Changwon Special Steel will supply high-quality materials (slabs) for producing highly corrosion-resistant clad heavy plates to Dongkuk Steel, which will roll these into clad heavy plates and provide them to SeAH Steel, which will manufacture clad corrosion-resistant steel pipe products.
At the signing ceremony, the head of Dongkuk Steel’s Dangjin plant (Executive Director) said, “We expect a synergy effect as excellent core technologies come together,” and added, “Let us cooperate to not only localize materials but also achieve exports.”
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