l At worldsteel’s annual meeting in Madrid, the board of directors of the organization appoints POSCO CEO Jeong-Woo Choi as the new member of the Executive Committee
l On the same day, the world championship of the 13th steelChallenge goes to POSCO’s Yong-Tae Kim
On April 16, POSCO CEO Jeong-Woo Choi was appointed as the new executive committee member of the World Steel Association (worldsteel) during its annual meeting held in Madrid, Spain.
▲ CEO Jeong-Woo Choi pictured with the worldsteel Chairman André Johannpeter (Executive Vice Chairman, Gerdau S.A.) at the worldsteel annual meeting held in Madrid, Spain.
The Executive Committee is worldsteel’s top decision-making body setting the path for the organization’s core activities regarding steel promotion, product development, and environmental sustainability. Altogether 13 members serve under the committee.
The appointment process of a new Executive Committee member follows: the five-membered Nominating Committee first makes recommendations. The nominated candidates then undergo the voting processes by the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors. Once appointed, the members serve a three-year term.
Members of the Executive Committee have the mandate to appoint the chairman and are themselves eligible to serve as the worldsteel’s head after serving one year as the vice chair.
Three of POCO’s former CEOs had served as the worldsteel Chairman: Man-Je Kim in 1996, Gu-Taek Lee in 2007, Joon-Yang Chung in 2013. POSCO’s latest CEO Oh-Joon Kwon held the Vice Chairmanship in 2017.
On the same day, the Board addressed the issues worldsteel is currently undertaking such as reduction of carbon dioxide, steel sustainability and the short-term outlook for global steel demand.
Founded in 1967, the World Steel Association currently has over 160 members from steel producers and other related organizations. Headquartered in Brussels, worldsteel is one of the biggest steel industry associations in the world, and their members account for 85 percent of global steel production.
Alongside the annual meeting, the world championship of the 13th steelChallenge also took place – South Korea’s Yong-Tae Kim of Pohang Steelworks’ Steelmaking Department became the final winner in the Industry category.
▲ POSCO CEO Jeong-Woo Choi (right) pictured with the final winner of the world championship of the 13th steelChallenge, Yong-Tae Kim of Pohang Steelworks.
steelChallenge is a simulated steelmaking competition organized by worldsteel. In this annual event that kicked off in 2005, students and engineers from across the globe have 24 hours to produce a grade of steel meeting technical requirements at the lowest cost per ton.
▲ The SteelChallenge World Champion Yong-Tae Kim of Pohang Steelworks (center) with Koji Kakigi (pictured left – worldsteel Education and Training Committee Chairman & JFE Steel Corp. CEO) and worldsteel Chairman André Johannpeter (pictured right – Gerdau S.A. Executive Vice Chairman).
Yong-Tae Kim advanced to the finals as the Asian winner of the worldsteel Regional Championship on November last year, beating out over 1,900 participants.
POSCO won this global challenge back in 2006 in team competition – this is POSCO’s first win since the 2014 rule change that turned the contest into the individual competition.
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