Dongkuk Steel, Structural Steel Business Moves to Pohang... CS Plant Integrated Launch

Shinpyeong Plant Relocates to Pohang
Cost Efficiency Up through Steelmaking and Rolling Synergy

Dongkuk Steel Group's hot-rolled steel affiliate, Dongkuk Steel, announced on the 28th that it has relocated the general steel production function of its Busan Sinpyeong Plant to the Bonggang Plant in Pohang.

Dongkuk Steel's Pohang Plant is a hub equipped with steelmaking (molten iron) - steel section (H-beam) - rebar (coil rebar) production capabilities. With this relocation, the Pohang rebar production and Sinpyeong general steel production will be combined.

With this function transfer, Dongkuk Steel's Pohang Bonggang Plant has expanded its role from a specialized coil rebar production base with an annual capacity of 500,000 tons to a plant capable of producing both coil rebar and general steel sections.

Following the business integration, Dongkuk Steel's Pohang Bonggang Plant has been renamed the ‘CS Plant.’ CS is a compound acronym derived from the first letters of Coil (coil rebar) and Section (steel section) in English.

Employees taking a commemorative photo at the signboard of Dongkuk Steel Pohang CS Plant
Photo by Dongkuk Steel

The function transfer is the result of Dongkuk Steel's careful consideration of cost management and production efficiency measures amid changes in the steel industry.

Dongkuk Steel's Sinpyeong Plant is a hub producing 300,000 tons of general steel sections annually. It has one rolling line. Rolling refers to a method of processing metal materials by passing them between two rotating rolls.

Dongkuk Steel judged that it would be difficult to secure cost competitiveness amid changing raw material procurement conditions with rolling alone without steelmaking (molten iron production). Therefore, it integrated the steel section business functions into Pohang, which has an electric furnace steelmaking facility with an annual capacity of 1.4 million tons, to streamline production.

Dongkuk Steel's Pohang CS Plant completed obtaining KS certification for major general steel section products in December.