‘Pohang Innovation Industry’ in Focus! … French Economic Daily ‘Les Echos’

French Leading Economic Daily Introduces Battery Industry Including Interview with Mayor Lee Gang-deok

EcoPro, POSCO and Other Innovative Industries in Pohang Featured Locally in Europe

The vibrant state of Pohang's innovative industries, including secondary batteries and steel, was featured in France's leading economic daily, Les Echos.

Pohang City announced that an article titled "From Steel to Batteries, the Rapid Success of the Korean Peninsula's Dunkirk" was published in the November 14 issue of the French economic daily Les Echos.

French economic daily Les Echos focuses on 'Pohang's innovative industries'.

The article begins with an interview with Mayor Lee Kang-deok, stating, "From 1968 to today, POSCO, a major Korean conglomerate, transformed Pohang from a small fishing village into a metropolis with a population of 500,000," and "The growth of the steel industry is currently facing difficulties, and we have decided to build a battery industry value chain to continue development."

The article introduces Pohang's innovative industrial sites rapidly shifting from the steel industry to the battery industry, drawing a comparison to the northern French city of Dunkirk.

According to the article, Pohang has signed consecutive investment cooperation agreements with battery material companies over the past few years and plans to attract more than $10 billion in investment by 2030, which is considered a scale similar to Dunkirk, France's battery hub, which attracted 8 billion euros ($8.6 billion) in investment.

The article also explains the production processes, scale, and products of EcoPro and POSCO steelworks located in Pohang, which were visited for coverage, and discusses their competitiveness in the international market.

It further notes that the rise of the electric vehicle industry and strong support have become growth points for battery companies, introducing that the rise of Korea's battery industry is due to bold exports.

Pohang is fostering the battery industry with the goal of producing 1 million tons of cathode materials, enough to be used in 10 million vehicles in the future, and explains that Korea's cathode material exports to the United States have already tripled compared to the beginning of the year.

At the end of the article, it concludes that Pohang and other national advanced strategic industrial complexes in Korea are building the battery value chain faster than European countries, and that European countries are watching the developments in Korea with great interest.

Through this report, Pohang City expects an increase in companies and media visiting Pohang by promoting the region's excellent secondary battery industry infrastructure and capabilities not only to France but also to Europe and the world, and plans to strengthen related industrial and economic policies.

Les Echos, published since 1908, is a must-read in the French economic sector and is recognized worldwide alongside English-language Financial Times, German Handelsblatt, and Singapore Straits Times. It delivers industrial and economic news globally through its website to readers around the world.