POSCO Jungtai Launches Localization of High-Purity Rare Gases... Groundbreaking Ceremony at Gwangyang Plant

"Expansion of Industrial Gas Portfolio"

POSCO Jungtai Air Solution announced on the 5th that it has begun construction of a high-purity rare gas plant on the Donghoan site in Gwangyang, Jeonnam.

POSCO Jungtai Air Solution is a high-purity rare gas production corporation jointly invested by POSCO Holdings and China Jungtai Cryogenic Technology, with respective shares of 75.1% and 24.9%, and was launched last August.

Rare gases are neon (Ne), xenon (Xe), and krypton (Kr), which exist in trace amounts in the air and are mainly used in advanced industries such as semiconductors, displays, and artificial satellite propulsion fuel.

Domestically, POSCO is the only company producing crude rare gases with a purity below 41% at its steel mill oxygen plant. Since December last year, POSCO Holdings has been working with Jungtai to establish a high-purity rare gas plant to refine the rare gases produced at the oxygen plant into 99.999% high-purity rare gases and supply them to semiconductor companies at home and abroad such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Intel.

The high-purity rare gas plant is scheduled to be completed by November next year and will be located on the south side of the Donghoan site at the Gwangyang Steelworks, with an annual production capacity of 130,000 N㎥. This capacity can supply 52% of the domestic semiconductor market demand. It is expected to greatly contribute to the localization of high-purity rare gas materials, which have so far been mostly imported, and to the growth of national advanced industries such as semiconductors and the space industry.

Lee Hyung-su, Head of POSCO's Corporate Planning Division, emphasized, "Starting with the production of high-purity rare gases, we plan to expand our industrial gas business portfolio to include specialty gases utilizing steel by-products and the supply of oxygen and nitrogen for secondary battery material production."