On September 3, a professional production line for the 7th CGL advanced automotive steel sheets, in Gwangyang Plant of Pohang Iron and Steel Company (POSCO), was officially put into construction. The newly built production line has an annual output of 500,000 tons, which means that POSCO will have an annual capacity of producing 10 million tons auto sheets at a global level, ranking it the world’s second largest auto sheets producing company after Arcelor Mittal.
The 7th CGL production line will mainly produce AHSS automotive steel products, with a total investment of 255.4 billion South Korean won, and the construction is scheduled to complete by June 2017. This is the 7th CGL production line of POSCO in South Korea, and the 11th if all overseas branches are included. In 2014, the output of POSCO auto sheets reaches around 8.5 million tons. The newly built production line will escalate its production capacity in South Korea from the current 3.3 million tons to 3.8 million tons, up by over 15%, increasing the sales by 450 billion won. By 2017, with the 7th CGL of Gwangyang Plant and other new production lines in Thailand and China putting into operation, POSCO will possess 13 CGL production lines and its annual output for auto sheets is expected to reach 10 million tons.
In the process of building the 7th CGL production line of the Gwangyang Plant, , POSCO handled everything, ranging from bidding, design to construction and other sectors, on its own, without seeking any help from any external large-scale construction enterprise or construction company. POSCO developed a number of new technologies, and created the compact annealing furnace as well as after-coating cooling units, saving substantially in terms of investment costs. POSCO plans to take advantage of its original-invented technology, the 2nd generation ultra high-strength automotive sheets (X-AHSS), to increase its share in the galvanized steel market. AHSS automotive sheets weigh lighter than ordinary auto sheets by about 10 percent, but are two times stronger in strength. By utilizing steel sheets like these, Carmakers, can reduce the amount of steel needed for making cars, and meet high requirement in steel strength. The AHSS products from the 7th CGL production line of Gwangyang plant will be sold to manufacturers including Volkswagen, General Motors, Toyota, etc.
From: World Metals