Another Fire at Pohang Steelworks Causes Partial Operation Disruption... "Recovery Possible Within This Week"

Fire at 3Finex Factory Producing Soetmu

At around 4:20 a.m. on the 10th, a fire broke out at POSCO Pohang Steelworks in Jecheol-dong, Nam-gu, Pohang-si, Gyeongbuk, and was completely extinguished by 9:20 a.m., five hours later. The Coast Guard is inspecting the sea around POSCO. Photo by Yonhap News

POSCO announced on the 11th that the Pohang Steelworks 3-PHINEX plant, which caught fire in the early hours of the 10th, is expected to resume operations "within this week." The company also added, "The production shortfall during this period will be flexibly compensated by increasing the output of Blast Furnaces 2, 3, and 4."

Earlier, at around 4:20 a.m. the previous day, an explosion and fire occurred at the 3-PHINEX plant of POSCO Steelworks in Pohang, Gyeongbuk. The flames were completely extinguished by approximately 9:20 a.m., five hours after the fire broke out. Among the eight workers inside the plant at the time of the fire, one suffered burns while seven evacuated safely.

The 3-PHINEX plant, like blast furnaces, is a facility that produces molten iron. The PHINEX process skips the coke manufacturing plant and sintering process used for preliminary treatment of raw materials, directly using inexpensive powdered iron ore and bituminous coal as raw materials. It is known to reduce investment and production costs by about 15%. The molten iron produced by PHINEX has no difference in physical properties or quality compared to that produced by blast furnaces, making it a viable substitute.

The 3-PHINEX plant currently accounts for about 10% of the total molten iron production at the Pohang Steelworks. The molten iron production facilities at Pohang Steelworks consist of the 3-PHINEX plant (2 million tons), Blast Furnace 2 (annual capacity 2 million tons), Blast Furnace 3 (4.88 million tons), Blast Furnace 4 (5.3 million tons), and the 2-PHINEX plant (1.5 million tons). However, given that steel demand is weaker than usual, the partial disruption at Pohang Steelworks is not expected to have a significant impact on upstream and related industries.

POSCO, along with police and fire authorities, plans to investigate the cause of the fire and the extent of the damage. In the past two years, Pohang Steelworks has experienced operational disruptions due to consecutive incidents, including flooding caused by Typhoon Hinnamnor and a fire at Blast Furnace 2 last year.