POHANG, North Gyeongsang Province _ At the far northeast end of the 8.9 million square meter (2.7 million pyeong) POSCO steel complex in Pohang lies a construction site for a FINEX plant -- POSCOs next-generation steel making furnace.
Faced with scarce natural resources and rising labor costs in Korea, POSCO put its head together with the Austrian engineering firm Voest-Alpine Industries to create a steel making technology that could prove to be both cost-effective and eco-friendly.
After more than a decade of research and development, the two companies created FINEX technology.
The company who has abundant resources and low-cost labor wins the global steel race today, said Bae Jin-chan, the head of POSCOs FINEX operation. We, however, have no resources, and our labor costs are steadily climbing. Our only escape then was to come up with innovative technology that could boost our capacity.
Also, since steel technology has become universal in which every nation utilizes 100-year-old production methods, industries need to find a technological turning point to meet todays environmental standards.
And FINEX holds the key to POSCOs drive for growth and globalization, the FINEX chief proudly says.
In the first phase, two FINEX plants each with an annual production capacity of 2 million metric tons of steel will be established in India, said Bae.
POSCO has invested over 3 billion to build a 12-million-ton steel capacity mill by 2020 in India where the firm has also tapped into the nations rich coal and iron ore sources -- two main ingredients for FINEX steel making.
Bae noted that the Indian plant with the FINEX technology will be faster than the POSCO mill in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province.
The construction of the 1.3 trillion won FINEX plant in Pohang is 90 percent complete, and will be up and running by April next year to produce 1.5 million tons of steel annually. Its pilot plant, which was competed in 2003, can produce 750,000 tons of steel.
Bae calls FINEX a one-package plant deal, which means that it can produce molten iron by directly using iron ore and coal fines, without taking preliminary processing steps that are required when utilizing a conventional blast furnace.
