POSCO Group, owner of South Korea’s biggest steel mill, aims to
grow its annual sales by more than 32 percent by diversifying its portfolio to
non-steel sectors such as secondary battery materials, hydrogen and energy.
The group is targeting to grow its sales to more than 100
trillion won ($75.3 billion) in annual sales, up from the current 76 trillion
won, it said, without providing more details including when it expects to
achieve that goal.
“POSCO Group would like to contribute to the national economy
by becoming a major environmentally-friendly future materials company that goes
beyond steel,” Kim Hag-Dong, vice chairman of POSCO, said on Wednesday, at its
steel mill in Gwangyang, 287 kilometers south of Seoul.
Kim’s remarks were made as he greeted Prime Minister Han
Duck-soo and together toured the steel mill and Donghoan site in Gwangyang.
Donghoan - located on the east coast of the Gwangyang steel mill - is a
structure installed to prevent the erosion of the steel mill site from the sea.
Since 1989, POSCO has been reclaiming land from the sea
located between the steel mill and Donghoan to expand at the Gwangyang steel
mill. The land is about 2.3 million pyong (7.6 million square meters) in size,
which is about one third of the size of the steel mill.
The area is home to a coke factory, a steel raw materials
yard and liquefied natural gas terminal. Donghoan is expected to transform into
a non-steel future advanced industry base for POSCO Group once regulations are
eased by the government, possibly in the first half of this year, according to
Han.