South Korea's POSCO resumes operations at Gwangyang 3 BF

The South Korean steel manufacturing giant POSCO, has operationalized its Gwangyang 3-Boro blast furnace (BF) after 20 months of maintenance and up-gradation with a total cost of 400 bn won ($300 mn), which lifted its capacity to 5,500 m3 from 4,600 m3 previously.

The functional Gwangyang 3 BF can now produce 25% additional hot metal at 4.65 mtpa.

POSCO has a total of six extra-large BFs, 2 units at Pohang and 4 at Gwangyang including the world's largest BF, Gwangyang 1 (6000 m3).

Market demand has slowed for POSCO as it has for other major global steelmakers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.