Pohang No.4 Blast Furnace Ignition Ceremony
"100-Year Enterprise Growth"
On the 27th, one day before POSCO Group Chairman Jang In-hwa's 100th day in office, a lighting ceremony was held to start operations at Pohang Steelworks Blast Furnace No. 4.
POSCO announced on the 27th that it successfully completed the third refurbishment of Pohang Blast Furnace No. 4 and held a lighting ceremony to reignite the furnace and begin the fourth campaign operation. The refurbishment work involves shutting down the furnace and halting production to modernize the equipment for performance improvement, and the lighting ceremony involves igniting the furnace to start the campaign operation, which typically lasts 15 years.
Jang In-hwa, Chairman and CEO of POSCO Group, is igniting the tuyere of the No. 4 blast furnace at the Pohang Steelworks on the 27th. (Provided by POSCO)
The event was attended by Chairman Jang, POSCO CEO Lee Si-woo, POSCO Future M CEO Yoo Byung-ok, POSCO DX CEO Jung Deok-gyun, and other group executives, as well as related officials including Pohang Mayor Lee Kang-deok and Pohang City Council Chairman Baek In-gyu.
Blast Furnace No. 4 at Pohang, completed in February 1981, has been operating steadily since its initial startup, undergoing two refurbishments in 1994 and 2010. Notably, the second refurbishment in 2010 increased its volume from 3,795㎥ to 5,600㎥, and it has produced approximately 150 million tons of molten iron to date.
The third refurbishment was carried out after about 14 years of the third campaign operation since 2010, maintaining the same volume but focusing on renewing aging equipment and applying a smart blast furnace system.
The thickness of the blast furnace’s iron shell was increased to enhance durability and stability, and the cooling method was improved to boost equipment efficiency. Additionally, a smart blast furnace system was applied using deep learning, enabling the furnace to predict and control its own operational outcomes, which is expected to improve productivity and reduce costs.
The third refurbishment took a total of 1 year and 4 months, including 4 months of halted molten iron production, with an investment of approximately 530 billion KRW and a workforce of about 380,000 person-days, contributing to local employment creation and regional economic revitalization.
POSCO held a furnace lighting ceremony for Blast Furnace No. 4 at the Pohang Steelworks on the 27th. (From the left in the first row) Cheol-mu Lee, Head of Plant Business Division at POSCO E&C; Si-yeol Cheon, Head of POSCO Pohang Steelworks; Bon-seok Lee, Company-wide Worker Representative of POSCO Labor-Management Council; Seong-ho Kim, Chairman of POSCO Labor Union; Si-woo Lee, CEO of POSCO; In-hwa Jang, Chairman of POSCO Group; Gang-deok Lee, Mayor of Pohang; In-gyu Baek, Chairman of Pohang City Council; Byung-ok Yoo, CEO of POSCO Future M; Deok-gyun Jeong, CEO of POSCO DX; Kyung-han Kim, Head of Communications Team at POSCO Holdings (Photo by POSCO)
Chairman Jang said, "This is a meaningful day that breathes new life into Blast Furnace No. 4," and added, "I hope that Blast Furnace No. 4 will become a solid pillar for POSCO’s growth into a 100-year company by securing competitiveness in productivity, cost, and quality."
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