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30^th May 2007, Bhubaneswar: Adding a new chapter in the world steel making history POSCO celebrated successful completion of FINEX commercialization plant with 1.5 million ton capacity per annum in Pohang steelworks on May 30, in presence of South Korean President Roh, Muhyun, and more than one thousand dignitaries from all over the world.

 

It is the innovative future generation of steel making technologies as replacement of blast furnace which so far has been evaluated as most competitive among steel making technologies in the world. Finex eliminates the first step in the steelmaking process of sintering and coking and allows the direct use of low-cost ore fines and coal, bringing overall plant installation and operational costs. Another advantage of Finex is the reduction of pollution, producing significantly less sulphur and nitrogen oxide than current furnaces.  .

 

POSCO has invested about 1.06 trillion Won (USD $ 1.14 billion) since commencement of its construction in August 2004. The construction engineering was designed by VOEST-ALPINE and carried out by POSEC (POSCO Engineering and Construction). POSCO finally succeeded in innovative technology development after 15 years since 1992 when POSCO started researches to replace blast furnaces. Its total investment into R&D in order to develop FINEX process and to success in commercializing it was 554.1 billion Won (USD $ 596 Million).

 

Korean government played a big role in FINEX technology development and commercialization. The government created a “Korean new steel R&D association” aiming to increase competitiveness of the Korean steel industry in 1990 and budgeted the research with 22.2 billion Won since 1992.

 

CEO Lee, Ku-Taek said “POSCO expect to win competitiveness with FINEX plant.” He added “we will hold technology leadership by making full efforts to technology development and introducing No. 1 products to the market faster and earlier than competitors.”

 

POSCO has announced that the FINEX technology will be adopted for its proposed 12 MTPA green field integrated steel project in Orissa (India). This will be the world's first steel mill outside Korea to use FINEX in large scale. Moreover, FINEX can better utilize the high-alumina contained Indian iron-ore than the blast-furnace technology, thus is expected to substantially reduce the proposed amount of swapping of iron ore required for its 12 MTPA steel project.

 

CMD, POSCO-India Cho, Soung-Sik said “this technology will make POSCO-India steel work most competitive in Indian steel sector”. Naveen Pattnaik, Chief Minister Orissa, in his message conveyed appreciation of the success of POSCO’s endeavor. He reiterated that his ‘government’s commitment to POSCO-India project in Orissa’.

 

A high level delegation from Govt. of Orissa comprising of Mr. Priyabrata Patnaik, Commissioner – cum – Secretary, Commerce & Transport and Nodal Officer POSCO-India project; Mr. U.P. Singh, Principal Secretary. Steel & Mines; Mr. Ashok Mahadeo Rao Dalwai, Commissioner – cum – Secretary, Industries and Mr. S.R. Mishra, Chief Technical Advisor, UNIDO attended the inaugural ceremony and interacted with key officials involved in the technology and development of the hi-tech steelworks.

 

POSCO-India Private Limited is a subsidiary of POSCO, the world’s No. 3 steel producer and one of the most competitive steel companies. POSCO signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Orissa in June 2005, to set up a 12-mtpa green field steel plant near Paradip, Jagatsinghpur District, Orissa, with an estimated investment of USD12 billion. The company will build a 4 million tonne capacity steel plant in Orissa, during the first phase of its project between 2007 and 2010 and expand the final production volume to 12 million tonnes. POSCO-India Pvt. Ltd. was incorporated in 25th August 2005 with the Registrar of Companies, Orissa, under the Companies Act 1956.

 

 

POSCO completed the Corex plant with capacity of 600,000 metric tons per year in 1995 and finished its theoretical inspection on Smelting Reduction Process (or Direct Iron Ore Smelting Reduction) by being successful in normal operation 1 year later, making efforts to develop the method to use powdered-type iron ore directly through construction of a model plant with capacity of 15 metric tons per day in 1996 and a pilot plant with capacity of 150,000 metric tons per day in 1999.

 

Based on that, POSCO has formed FINEX Process Technology by constructing a demo plant with capacity of 600,000 metric tons per year equal to a commercial scale in May, 2003, which has run successfully.