Mayor Lee Requests Government to Prepare Emergency Measures to Overcome Crisis in Steel and Secondary Battery Industries
Urges Government-Level Support Including Enactment of Special Law and Phase 3 Development of Blue Valley National Industrial Complex
On the 20th, Lee Gang-deok, Mayor of Pohang, met with Park Seong-taek, the 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, to request the urgent establishment of countermeasures to respond to the crisis in the steel and secondary battery industries.
Mayor Lee Gang-deok of Pohang City delivered a proposal letter to Park Seong-taek, the 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Photo by Pohang City
Pohang City proposed the preparation of an ‘Urgent Countermeasure to Overcome the Crisis in the Steel and Secondary Battery Industries,’ including government-level subsidy support and reduction of industrial electricity rates, designation of a ‘Special Industrial Crisis Response Area,’ enactment of a ‘Special Act,’ creation of a secondary battery super-gap innovation ecosystem, expansion of new industries such as bio, hydrogen fuel cells, and digital technologies, ‘Expansion of the Pohang Convergence Technology Industrial Zone,’ ‘Development of the 3rd Phase of the Blue Valley National Industrial Complex,’ and ‘Promotion of Public Development by the Korea Industrial Complex Corporation.’
The mayor stated, “The local industry, which is struggling amid recent global oversupply and China’s low-price offensive, is working with the city to overcome the crisis, but above all, support and assistance from the central government are urgently needed. I hope the government will definitely prepare extraordinary support measures to overcome the local industry crisis.”
As the local steel and secondary battery industries face a crisis due to the recent shutdown of Hyundai Steel’s 2nd plant, Trump’s potential re-election, and the battery chasm, Pohang City has formed an Industrial Crisis Response T/F team to respond.
Additionally, the city held an emergency countermeasure meeting with related local industrial crisis response agencies, visited Hyundai Steel and Dongkuk Steel’s H-beam factories to share on-site situations, and on the 10th, visited the Pohang Steel Management Corporation to conduct in-depth discussions with representatives of resident companies regarding the local steel industry crisis, making every effort to prepare practical response measures.
Pohang City plans to focus administrative efforts on establishing urgent countermeasures to overcome the crisis, such as government support funds for small and medium enterprises and reduction of industrial electricity rates, through continuous cooperation with central ministries including the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Furthermore, to revitalize the local economy, the city will actively promote livelihood stabilization policies such as creating a 200 billion KRW special guarantee fund for small business owners and issuing Pohang Love Gift Certificates worth 200 billion KRW.
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