[Featured Stock] POSCO Holdings, World's First Developed High-Manganese Steel... Perfect for Alaska Project

On the 4th (local time), U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to promote a large-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline project in Alaska during his first congressional speech of his second term, and since then, POSCO Holdings stock has been showing an upward trend.

Expectations are rising that the related market will expand as President Trump lifts restrictions on LNG exports. POSCO plans to strengthen its global LNG value chain, including LNG terminals. Currently, POSCO possesses competitiveness spanning from LNG production to storage, sales, and construction. Demand is also expected to increase for the new high-manganese steel material that POSCO first developed worldwide in 2013.

As of 10:42 a.m. on the 7th, POSCO Holdings is trading at 313,000 KRW, up 5.92% from the previous day.

High-manganese steel is steel with a significantly increased manganese content. Generally, nickel is added to carbon steel to enhance strength and toughness, but high-manganese steel is characterized by containing manganese (about 24%) and chromium (over 3%) instead of nickel. It has the same performance as the existing 'nickel-aluminum alloy steel' containing 9% nickel but is 30% cheaper. It does not break even at ultra-low temperatures of minus 196 degrees Celsius, is hard and wear-resistant, and does not stick to magnets, making it highly useful in the energy market.

Jang In-hwa, Chairman of the POSCO Group, decided to replace the LNG terminal originally designed with other materials with high-manganese steel, considering synergy within the group during his tenure as head of the steel division. High-manganese steel is also applied to LNG carriers. Hanwha Ocean, in 2022, became the first in the world to install LNG fuel tanks made of high-manganese steel on crude oil carriers. Since last year, it has also been applied to LNG fuel tanks on container ships.

The ultra-low temperature high-manganese steel developed by POSCO was approved as an international technical standard by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2022. Since Korea joined the IMO in 1962, this is the first case where Korea has proactively proposed a material and successfully passed the agenda. Last year, it was designated as a national core technology.