South Korea: Hyundai, POSCO explore investment opportunities in wind turbines

With the South Korean government considering large-scale investment in the renewable energy sector such as solar and wind, several Korean companies from sectors like shipbuilding to construction are showing interests in investing in this industry. Steel giants POSCO and Hyundai Steel have evinced interest too.

In fact, POSCO has been exploring investment opportunities in the offshore wind market. Currently, one of every 10 wind turbines in the world uses POSCO's steel products. The company has the most-complete product outline in the field of wind power generation. In addition, the steel producer in committed to developing new steel grades for wind towers.

With the rapid development of offshore wind markets in Asia, Europe, and North America, POSCO is developing steel products that can cope with the harsh offshore environment while reducing manufacturing costs.

Hyundai Steel is focusing on increasing supply of thick plates in a bid to capture the offshore wind power market. The steelmaker is concentrated on supplying special steel for the lower towers.

In 2020, Hyundai Steel provided 17,000 t of thick plates to Taiwan.?In the past three years, its supply of steel for the lower pillars of offshore wind power generation alone has reached approximately 75,000 t.?It has also provided about 35,000 t of thick plates for offshore wind power towers to India and Turkey.

In 2021, Hyundai Steel signed a contract to supply more than 30,000 t of steel in Taiwan.?In addition, the company plans to actively participate in large-scale projects in South Korea such as Jeju Island and Sinan, Jeollanam-do to expand steel supply for offshore wind power generation.

Apart from them, other major steel players entering the wind power market are Dongkuk Steel and SeAH Besteel. Dongkuk Steel is set to supply the market with new products like composite thick plates and variable thickness plates (DK-LP Plate).

On the other hand, SeAH Besteel, in Jan'21, bagged an order from the largest offshore wind fastener company in Taiwan to provide 5,000 t of special steel for turbines. With growing demand for offshore wind power generation in China, Taiwan and India, SeAH Besteel plans to expand the proportion of special steel for offshore wind power exports to 10% by 2025.

The Korean government, in Jul'20, had announced investment plans of around KRW 11.3 trillion ($9.76 bn) in the wind power sector.