Industrial AI Transformation: Overcoming the Steel Industry Crisis and Securing Sustainable Competitiveness
Attracting the National AI Computing Center and Establishing the Steel and Metal Digital Transformation Demonstration Center
Pohang City has declared a grand vision to realize the second Yeongilman Miracle beyond overcoming the crisis of South Korea's steel industry through the digital transformation (DX) of the steel and metal industries.
Pohang City Announces Vision for Digital Transformation of Steel and Metal Industries. Photo by Pohang City
On the 12th, the city held the ‘Steel and Metal Digital Transformation Declaration Ceremony’ attended by about 200 people, including Mayor Lee Kang-deok of Pohang, Governor Lee Cheol-woo of Gyeongbuk Province, Chairman Kim Il-man of the City Council, Chairman Na Ju-young of the Pohang Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chairman Jeon Ik-hyun of the Pohang Steel Industrial Complex Management Corporation, Director Lee Dong-ryeol of POSCO Pohang Steelworks, and representatives of related organizations and digital companies.
This event was organized to unite efforts to overcome the crisis through digital transformation amid the accelerating crisis in the steel industry caused by global oversupply and intensified competition, including the recent announcement of a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports by the United States, China's dumping-style exports, and low-priced steel offensives.
The city has set industrial artificial intelligence (AI) transformation as a core strategy and agreed to pool capabilities with global leaders and companies with the highest expertise in the industrial AI field to establish a new industrial paradigm by integrating advanced digital technologies into the steel industry.
At the declaration ceremony, the Digital Transformation Promotion Group was launched, and a mutual cooperation agreement was signed among a total of 30 organizations and companies, including local governments, partner institutions, IT companies, and steel companies, to create a digital and AI transformation ecosystem.
In this agreement, the related organizations agreed to strengthen mutual cooperation in creating a digital and AI transformation ecosystem by ▲establishing an industry-academia-research cooperation ecosystem for industrial digital and AI transformation ▲building a support system for the spread of industrial data standardization ▲laying the foundation for joint use of AI technology within the industrial sector ▲establishing a human network for cultivating core professionals.
Also, on the same day, Professor Cho Hyun-bo of POSTECH, director of the Gyeongbuk Industrial DX Collaboration Support Center, attracted attention by presenting the vision and strategy Pohang City should pursue while forecasting the future manufacturing industry that digital and AI transformation will bring under the theme of ‘The Direction of Digital Transformation in the Steel and Metal Industry.’
Starting with this declaration ceremony, the city plans to move faster than other local governments in creating a Pohang-type industrial AI-based cooperative ecosystem and accelerate policy promotion to secure the next-generation future industrial market.
Mayor Lee Kang-deok said, “As confirmed in the global steel industry crisis, industrial AI transformation is an unavoidable new trend that determines the national economy and security,” adding, “We will concentrate all our capabilities to lead a new smart manufacturing era through Pohang-type industrial AX transformation.”
Lee Kang-deok, Mayor of Pohang, declaring the vision for the digital transformation of the steel and metal industry.
Last year, Pohang City was finally selected in the public contest for the ‘Steel and Metal Digital Transformation Demonstration Center Construction Project,’ securing a total project budget of 22 billion KRW (14 billion KRW in national funds), and plans to lead the future AI transformation (AX) era based on the demonstration center.
Along with this, the city is putting all efforts into attracting the ‘National AI Computing Center’ as a base facility to secure global super-gap competitiveness in industrial AX. The city plans to invest a budget of about 2 trillion KRW to accelerate the leap to become one of the three major AI powers (AI G3) by successfully attracting the ‘National AI Computing Center’ to the region, thereby establishing a groundbreaking foundation for the AX transformation of local companies.
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