POSCO commences construction of automotive steel sheet plant in China

The South Korean steel giant POSCO Steel in a joint venture with Chinese major Hebei Steel (HBIS Group) has started construction of an automotive steel sheet plant in Dangshan, Hebei province, China on 7 Jan'22, as per a Steel Daily report. The plant has an annual capacity of 0.90 million tonnes (mn t) and is expected to get completed by CY'23.

The two companies had signed the joint venture towards the end of June'21, each sharing 50% stake and in Sept'21, established Hagang Group Co. Limited (Hebei Steel), and Hagang Pohang Railway Board Co. Limited in order to boost the production and sales of auto-grade plated steel sheets.

Furthermore, POSCO incorporated its Guangdong continuous galvanising line (CGL) as a subsidiary company into the joint venture by the end of last year, pushing up the production capacity of 0.45 mn t/year to 1.35 mn t/year.

It may be noted that China holds a major share in automobile production. The annual output in CY'20 aggregated to 25.22 million units, accounting for 32% of the world's automotive production. Whereas, the cumulative production in Jan-Nov'21 stood at 23.17 million units, as per the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) data.

~ Inputs from Steel Daily