The 2024 Global Volunteer Week, POSCO’s special volunteer service event, was held from May 23 to 31. More than 20,000 POSCO employees in Korea and other countries participated in large-scale volunteer work to practice sharing. POSCO Newsroom has taken vivid photos of the volunteer activities carried out by overseas subsidiary employees worldwide. Let’s meet them!

▲ The center director of POSCO-TNPC and eight employees made and delivered a donation set (including a 2-month supply of diapers) to support low-income families such as single mothers and disabled children at the Women’s Support Center in Bursa. It was meaningful in that the costs of the donated sets were funded by savings in electricity bills and costs associated with replacing the company’s LEDs and purchasing waste paper collection boxes.

▲ POSCO-ASSAN TST employees visited a kindergarten near its head office, created a new playground using waste wood, and performed environmental improvement by repainting old play equipment.

▲ POSCO-PWPC visited a nearby organization for disabled children and held an event to promote Korean culture through Korean language classes. The 10 participating employees communicated with the children by teaching them simple Korean greetings and writing their names in Korean.

▲ Four POSCO-Brazil employees conducted environmental cleanup activities at Bosque de Barra Park in downtown Rio de Janeiro on May 28.

▲ POSCO-Mexico employees volunteered to make bread at the Hope Center in downtown Altamira with officials from the Tamaulipas State Department of Welfare. This volunteer activity was especially meaningful in that employees and their families participated.

▲ Employees of four POSCO-MPPC factories carried out various volunteer activities for nine days. Employees of Factory 1 visited a local daycare center, painted classroom walls and floors, and cleaned vegetables and fruits to be delivered to nearby neighbors in need at a food bank. Employees of Factory 2 visited the government agency DIF and donated walkers, canes, and computers. They also visited a public kindergarten and donated playground equipment and computers. Employees of Factory 3 painted a government-supported soup kitchen, and those of Factory 4 visited a local orphanage and donated chairs.

▲ POSCO-MVWPC’s 42 employees visited a local school to paint the exterior walls of the school buildings and replace floor tiles, creating comfortable areas throughout the school to encourage students’ learning activities.

▲ All 52 employees of the AAPC Factory in the United States collected waste around each business site as part of their environmental cleanup activities.

▲ POSCO-America’s nine employees visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery to pay their respects and collected trash around the tombstone.

▲ POSCO-Australia employees held a joint event with KCCA, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and discussed plans for charity activities, and 55 members and their families participated in a charity walking competition to support children with neuroblastoma and completed a 5-kilometer walking course.

▲ POSCO-Western Australia employees conducted environmental cleanup by collecting trash around the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia and cleaned pollutants from the monument.

▲ Thirty-five members of the Mexican Trading Corporation’s volunteer group visited a child and youth protection center in Mexico City, donated various items, and interacted with the children by playing piñata, a traditional Mexican game. (Right) Eight members of the POSCO International Mexico Motor Core Corporation visited a nearby elementary school, presented a first aid kit, cleaning supplies, and school supply sets, and held a tree planting ceremony.

▲ (Left) Nine members of a volunteer group at POSCO International Brazil’s Sao Paulo office donated relief goods for recovery from a flood to victims of heavy rain in Ihu Grande do Sul, Brazil. (Right) Eleven members of the POSCO International BA branch’s volunteer group donated daily necessities and served dinner to low-income and disabled families in a slum in Buenos Aires.

▲ (Left) Eight members of the Bogota branch visited the Red Cross in Bogota and practiced love for their neighbors by donating blood. (Right) Five members of the Panama branch’s volunteer group visited the Panama Canal Miraflores Visitor Center to collect trash and carry out environmental cleanup activities.

▲ Volunteer groups at the German and Italian trading corporations visited a park near the head office and carried out environmental cleanup activities.

▲One hundred and nineteen members of the Uzbek Cotton Corporation’s volunteer group carried out environmental cleaning activities inside and outside the corporation’s factory and around the Fergana region.

▲ (Left) Five members of the Dammam branch’s volunteer group visited nearby Al Khor Beach and carried out environmental cleanup activities on the shore by collecting trash discarded by tourists. (Right) Six members of the Cairo branch’s volunteer group planted 20 lemon trees and 20 pomegranate trees around El Horreya Women’s Hospital.

▲ Eight members of the Johannesburg branch’s volunteer group carried out environmental cleanup activities by picking up trash around the branch office and removing fallen leaves that had been neglected for a long time.

▲ Eleven members of the Tokyo head office’s volunteer group planted flowers in flower beds at nearby Tsukiji River Ginza Park, cleaned up the area around the park, visited a senior center to clean balconies and windows on each floor and organized the garden.

▲ Members of the Osaka branch’s volunteer group visited a nearby orphanage and provided necessary items such as strollers, car seats, and rice and served meals to the homeless in the park.

▲ (Left) Thirteen members of the Nagoya branch’s volunteer group carried out environmental cleanup activities in the Nagoya Castle area. (Right) Twenty-six members of the Beijing branch’s volunteer group visited a nearby senior welfare center to donate necessary items, make meat dumplings, and serve a warm dinner to local seniors living alone.

▲ (Left) Five members of the Qingdao branch’s volunteer group visited a nearby cherry farm, helped with the harvest, purchased cherries produced by the farm, and donated them to a local nursing home. (Right) Six members of the Wuhan branch’s volunteer group visited a childcare facility and presented daily necessities and study materials to the children.

▲ (Left) POSCO-CORE’s volunteer group visited the Yanzi Lake’s Ecological Park near the company and carried out environmental cleanup activities. (Right) Forty-five members of PT. BIA’s volunteer group collected trash around the residences of Papua Palm Farm employees and maintained drainage channels.

▲ (Left) Eleven members of the Labor-Management Council-PT. BIA corporation’s volunteer group donated children’s art supplies to a kindergarten near the company. (Right) Five members of PT. KPE’s volunteer group delivered donations needed to cook lunch boxes to Sewan Village in Indonesia and then participated in cooking.

▲(Left) Twelve members of the Indonesia E&P Corporation’s volunteer group visited a major park in Jakarta and carried out environmental cleanup activities, collecting various types of trash. (Right) Twenty members of the MPCC volunteer group of the Myanmar PRC Corporation and hotel corporation donated 35 sacks of rice and towels for two months to Agape Orphanage Center and carried out residential environment improvement activities by replacing old roofs.

▲(Left) One hundred and twenty-nine members of the Gas Field Operations Office’s volunteer group visited the Yangon Education Center for the Blind and donated braille printing paper, shampoo, toothpaste, and various snacks. (Right) Thirteen members of the Singapore Trading Corporation’s volunteer group carried out volunteer work at the Lions Befrienders Senior Welfare Center by packing and donating goodie bags containing daily necessities such as ramen, canned food, biscuits, and toiletries.

▲(Left) Ten members of the Indian Motor Core corporation’s volunteer group provided snacks and school supplies to boarding schools for children from single-parent and low-income families. Twelve members of the Manila branch’s volunteer group carried out environmental cleanup activities at Manila Baywalk Dolomite Beach. (Right) Seven members of the Sydney branch’s volunteer group participated in activities to remove parasitic trees and preserve native trees to protect the forest at the Field of Mars Reserve in Sydney.

Although the regions, environments, and languages ​​are different,
the hearts of POSCO Group executives and employees have become one through ‘sharing.’
POSCO Group’s volunteer activities for coexistence with the local community will continue in the future.
We ask for your interest and support!

▲ Click the image and find out more about POSCO overseas affiliates.

However, with closed borders and flights canceled, how could POSCO deliver face masks to its overseas subsidiaries? POSCO Newsroom looked into the details of this seemingly impossible mission.

CASE1. Indonesia
POSCO Group shipped 100,000 USD worth of COVID-19 test kits and relief supplies as well as 900,000 USD worth of face masks to Indonesia where PT.Krakatau POSCO (PT.KP) is located. The supplies helped in quarantine activities carried out by local communities and governments. The employees at PT.KP joined forces and took preventive measures against the COVID-19. As a result, PT.KP was able to continuously operate its plant without closing its facilities at all.

Irfan Afandi, the chairman of the labor union of PT.KP, expressed his thanks to POSCO CEO Jeong-Woo Choi through a letter describing how the face masks from the headquarter were well-distributed to all PT.KP employees and also to partner companies. He on behalf of all employees at PT.KP, also mentioned that all employees were deeply moved because the company supplied masks for their family members as well.

▲ The letter from Irfan Afandi (the chairman of the labor union of PT.KP)

Other than PT.KP, there are a total of nine POSCO Group companies expanding their businesses in Indonesia, including POSCO International’s PT. Bio Inti Agrindo (Palm oil farm) and PT.POSCO-Indonesia Inti (PT.PII), a Jakarta-based trading company.

The first death from COVID-19 in Brazil occurred in March. At that time, POSCO headquarters in Korea had already decided to provide face masks to all employees working at local business entities, business partners, and contractors, as well as all of their family members, and was striving to secure the supplies.

CASE2. Brazil
Must reach faster than the virus!
The first death from COVID-19 in Brazil occurred in March. At that time, POSCO headquarters in Korea had already decided to provide face masks to all employees and families, including group companies, partners, and joint ventures, as well as overseas subsidiaries, and was focusing on securing the supplies.

It was a race against time. With COVID-19 spreading rapidly since the beginning of April, acquiring new face masks was a difficult task, and employees in Brazil were using disposable masks for a week. While POSCO and POSCO ICT run offices in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo respectively, many employees from POSCO, POSCO E&C, and POSCO ICT are working at CSP(Companhia Siderúrgica do Pecém), a joint steel company in Brazil. POSCO secured more than 10,000 face masks for all employees and their family members including those from Dongkuk Steel, a business partner in CSP, and shipped them via air on April 14.

The masks arrived at Miami Airport, U.S. on April 15, but faced another challenge. All flights to Brazil had been canceled. POSCO decided to deliver them by land transport — traveling 14.887 km from Miami to Fortaleza, Brazil.

Transporting 14,887 km: from Miami to Fortaleza
To safely transport the mask, POSCO quickly contacted the most reliable company in the region. The specially packed face masks traveled through Miami, Panama, and Colombia, and reached its final destination, Fortaleza. After going through three days of the complicated customs clearance process, they were finally handed over to CSP on April 25. Three days after the arrival of the masks, the number of deaths in Brazil reached 5,000 and exceeded 10,000 on May 9. As of June 2, the toll stands at 30,000.

A CSP employee, who received the mask, expressed his gratitude on PBN, POSCO’s internal broadcasting station. “We appreciate all the efforts POSCO has put into providing the face masks — not just for the employees but also for the whole family.”, he said.

CASE3. India
New confirmed case occurs at airport customs, delivery delayed for 15 days.
In India, strong preventive measures were being taken due to the spread of COVID-19, including the closure of the country. In fact economic activity was paralyzed across the country. The number of airline flights decreased dramatically, including road closures, making it difficult to secure flights. POSCO managed to secure a flight but faced another challenge — customs. The multi-use face masks needed a guarantee from the local government, stating that they were relief goods. POSCO resolved the issue by closely cooperating with the customs and local government. Just when all seemed to go fine, a new COVID-19 confirmed case occurred in the airport customs. The entire airport was shut down, and the face masks were retained there for 15 days. After overcoming these series of challenges, the airport was reopened, and delivery resumed. The face masks arrived safely to the Indian subsidiary on May 8.

CASE4. Europe
Drilling through closed borders, into Europe.
The virus is on a rapid spread in Europe, especially in Italy and Spain. In the case of Italy, all borders of the country were closed, and all businesses faced temporary closure, except for essential industries. In this situation, POSCO-ITPC, a local processing center, urgently requested face masks. Although all borders were closed, fortunately, cargo planes from Korea were operated once a week. After several requests, POSCO succeeded in shipping the goods to Italy.

“Getting certification is nearly impossible if there’s no record of export to Europe.”
For other European countries, getting certification required for customs clearance was a major issue. The face masks were already exported to the U.S. and Hong Kong, but it had no record of exports to Europe, making it difficult to get a certification. It seemed that the procedure would take several months, However, acknowledging the urgent matter, the local customs finally accepted POSCO’s request in the end. At last, the face masks were delivered to various parts of Europe, including Germany, Belgium, France, Poland, and Slovakia.

What kind of face masks were delivered to POSCO Overseas employees?

▲ Multi-use face masks that were shipped to the POSCO E&C office in Abu Dhabi, UAE

Under the pharmaceutical law, face masks are designated as non-medical products and thus approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). There are two types of face masks: a surgical mask is one and respirators (anti-dust masks) the other. The MFDS restricted exports of two types of masks that have a KF certification (respirators), so POSCO secured multi-use masks that are as efficient as KF94 masks and distributed them to all employees both in Korea and abroad. The multi-use masks made with new copper materials have an antibacterial effect. They can be reused up to three months, and are able to retain its effectiveness.

CASE5. America
The confirmed case of a dispatched employee & the rapid spread of COVID-19
In March, POSCO-America, POSCO’s business office in the U.S., requested for multi-use masks. It reported that a dispatched employee working at POSCO-AAPC, a local processing center, was confirmed of the virus, and two more employees at POSCO-America and POSCO-Mexico were being tested. There was a great deal of difficulty in securing a flight to the United States, but POSCO accomplished the task once again. On March 29, the masks were sent on a night flight and arrived at Atlanta airport the next day. After going through customs clearance, the masks were distributed to Atlanta, Washington, Houston, Detroit, and Mexico City.

In March, POSCO-America also donated eight devices for video calling to the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center (Fisher House), where veterans who participated in the Korean War reside, in Augusta, Georgia. (See article)

Casa de Patricia is a non-governmental group that supports disabled children and provides welfare for the elderly, while ABC PECEM is currently helping 150 local, underprivileged children. Brazil CSP delivered KRW 3.6 million to the organizations for facility renovation and furnishings.    

Brazil CSP is a steel mill with an annual capacity of 3 million tons. It sits in the Pecem industrial complex in the state of Ceara, located in the northeastern region of Brazil. The company is a joint venture between POSCO and Dongkuk Steel and Brazilian mining company Vale.

However, the Amazon is under constant human threat as deforestation continues to increase with the expansion of industry and agriculture, as well as the growing number of natural disasters, including the drought that plagued San Paulo last year. But one team of scientists and researchers is going to great lengths (and heights) to better understand climate change and the effect it is having on our world.

Into the Jungle

To better comprehend the key roles the Amazon plays on a local, regional and global scale, a German-Brazilian joint project was initiated in 2008. It was coordinated by the Max Planck Institute, the Brazilian National Institute of Amazonian Research and Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA).

The central objective of the project was to build the Amazonian Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO), a scientific research tower, in the heart of Brazil’s Amazonian rainforest, hundreds of kilometers away from the closest city—and subsequently any anthropogenic influence.

Now the tallest structure in South America, the mast aims to collect data from a 700-kilometer radius for four kinds of research, including chemical changes in the atmosphere, the formation of clouds, the types and quality of pollen and the effect of global warming on photosynthesis by plants. By monitoring such changes, researchers are hoping to see how climate change is contributing to extreme weather events over the next 30 years.

Steel—A Tower of Strength

But constructing a giant tower in the middle of the isolated and often unforgiving Amazon was no easy feat.

It was essential that the material selected for the tower’s construction would be able to withstand the tropical conditions of the rainforest. Steel’s strength, combined with its unique versatility and lightweight properties, best met engineers’ requirements for the structure.

As a result, approximately 120 tons of steel were used to build the 142-ton, 325-meter-tall tower.

The steel structure of the ATTO tower was transported 4,000 kilometers by road and river from a steel plant in southern Brazil, and up a dirt track into the depths of the forest. This track, which was created specifically for the project, allowed for the successful transport of some 15,000 tower components to the construction site.

At the site, each of the various tower elements had to be lifted and assembled using 24,000 screws and bolts, while 26 kilometers of steel cable was needed to safely anchor the tower to the rainforest ground. Overall, the ATTO required the manpower of 30 workers and took about four months to complete.

Getting to the top of the 108-story-high structure takes an hour and a half; scaling it requires scientists and workers to lock carabiners onto a steel cable which runs continuously along the stairs of the superstructure like a handrail. At platforms on the way up, researchers can access the measurement equipment that collects data.

The tower was officially inaugurated last August and in the coming months, it will be equipped with additional instruments before the actual measurements will start by the end of this year.

Better Understanding for a Brighter Future

The ATTO complements the Zotino Tall Tower Observation Facility (ZOTTO) in Siberia, Russia, which was also built in partnership with the Max Planck Institute in 2006. The cable-stayed steel truss mast that boasts inlet pipes made of stainless steel has been used for greenhouse gas and aerosol monitoring.

It’s the hope of scientists that steel towers like ATTO and ZOTTO will provide a clearer understanding of the role played by various ecosystems most crucially in the context of climate change. This, in turn, could transform the remote, untouched corners of the world into areas of global importance unlike ever before.

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CSP, located in Ceara, a northeastern state of Brazil, is a steelworks jointly established by POSCO (20% stake), Dongkuk Steel (30% stake) and Vale (50% stake). The world’s largest iron ore producer Vale supplies iron ore ingredients while POSCO provides technology and operational support. Dongkuk Steel is in charge of procurement, logistics and general affairs.

More specifically, CSP is located in the Export Processing Zone (ZPE) in the Pecém industrial and port complex (CIPP) in Ceara. This allows the plant to utilize infrastructure provided by the Ceara state government, as well as load and unload raw materials, products and shipments more conveniently.

The CSP Steelworks began its construction in July 2012 and has now become fully operational. The 3800 m³ blast furnace plans to extract 3 million tons of molten iron annually to produce slabs.

CSP Steelworks expects to increase slab production of Brazil by 48% and the state GDP of Ceara by 12%, and at the same time generate new 16,000 jobs. Among the new positions will be 2,800 for its own and 1,200 for outsourcing companies. It looks like CSP will not only contribute to boosting the country’s economy, but also help promote a friendlier relationship between Korea and Brazil.

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The Barbecue Grill—Then and Now

The term itself, or so conventional wisdom says, comes from the Spanish word barbacoa, which refers to the wooden structure the Arawak people of South America used to roast meat in the seventeenth century.

By the 1700s, the practice had arrived in the Southeastern US, where pigs were pit-roasted for hours; different cooking styles emerged during westward expansion, varying in sauce, cut of meat and use of wood smoke. Yet, it wasn’t until the late 1940s when open brazier grills became a backyard fixture in suburban America.

The first grills weren’t without their flaws, however. Braziers often burned meat without cooking it and ash storms were common on windy days.

But in the early 1950s, George Stephen changed the game with his iconic hemispherical grill design, jokingly referred to as “Sputnik” by his neighbors.

Stephen, a welder, was employed by Weber Brothers Metal Works, a metalwork shop that dealt in welding steel spheres together to make buoys. Annoyed by ash getting into his food when he grilled, Stephen took the lower half of a buoy, welded three steel legs onto it and fashioned a shallower hemisphere for use as a lid. He took his project home and soon enough, established Weber-Stephen Products Co.

Stephen’s kettle grill is still considered to be the quintessential American grill design and has remained one of the most commercially successful charcoal grill designs to date. Still, grill styles continued to evolve from ones that use charcoal briquettes, like Stephen’s, to gas-fueled devices, and later infrared burners.

Portable burners like the hibachi (not to be confused with the Japanese heater) made grilling on-the-go easier, thus changing camping and picnic practices forever. Hibachis are typically made of cast iron and resemble traditional, Japanese, charcoal-heated cooking utensils called shichirin.

In recent years, designer Klaus Aalto redefined portable grilling with his City Boy Picnic Grill for Finnish manufacturer Selki-Asema. The grill’s shell is made of powder-coated steel, the grill of stainless steel and the handle of stainless steel and oak. Measuring in at just 7.1 inches wide, 7.1 inches deep and 8.7 inches tall, the grill can easily be taken along on a boat trip, for a walk in the forest or simply out in your garden.

Grilled to Perfection

There are multiple reasons why so many grill manufacturers are incorporating various types of steels—ranging from stainless to porcelain-coated to chrome-plated—into their product components.

Stainless steel generally doesn’t yield the same amount of high heat that a cast iron grill is able to produce, but what it lacks in temperature, it makes up for with heat retention. Steel is also much more durable and resilient, able to withstand harsher elements such as sun, wind, rain and salt. This makes it an ideal material for a device that is most often kept outdoors.

While steel grates typically darken with use, this is considered normal (though a quick wipe with a grill brush will solve this) and there’s virtually no clean up since the steel needs no oiling. Maintenance is also easier.

The cooking surfaces on stainless steel grills tend to be larger than those of cast iron grills but this is for good reason—they need to be able to retain enough heat to effectively sear and/or cook food.

Methods of grilling have certainly come a long way since their humble beginnings. This progress, undoubtedly, is due in no small part to the many steels that make the modern-day barbecue possible.

Yet, even though the ways and devices we use to grill have vastly changed over the years, the undeniable enjoyment that results from a barbecue remains constant. So, whether you’re roasting hotdogs over a campfire or searing a steak on your brand-new, high-tech stainless steel grill this summer, bon appétit!

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Brazil’s sugar cane straw market is bigger than ever, allowing for the expansion of the renewable energy sector, as well as the emergence of new biofuels.

To satisfy the growing demand for cane straw, equipment manufacturer Fácil System recently developed specialized, wear-resistant steel knives for its raw material shredding mill, making the sugar cane shredding process more efficient and profitable than ever.

Sugar cane straw—the tops and leaves of the sugar cane stalk—has become an important crop for nations like Brazil. The energy-rich straw has become increasingly used to generate electricity and create ethanol. Because it is a clean, affordable and low-carbon biofuel, sugar cane ethanol has emerged as a leading renewable fuel throughout the South American country.

Nevertheless, the processing of sugar cane straw involves an excessive amount of shredding and milling, and the crop’s strong fibers have a reputation for quickly wearing out processing machines. One company, however, is changing the game by utilizing high-strength steel.

A Cutting-Edge Solution

Since 1986, the Brazilian company Fácil System has made equipment and components for drying, crushing, grinding, screening and material handling systems for mining, quarry, ceramics, cement, fertilizer and other industries using creative and innovative techniques. Being located in the sugar plantation region of Araraquara, however, the company is especially familiar with sugar cane straw.

Spotting the added value of sugar cane straw, which had previously been discarded during harvesting, CEO Laércio Ribeiro, began to develop a new machine for shredding the material, envisioning a new market.

After an extensive review of potential materials for the machine, it was determined that only high-strength steel could meet the company’s performance target. Besides its wear properties, high-strength steel provides the possibility of cutting sheet metal via hot methods or water jets without changing the steel’s internal structural composition.

The mill rotor on the new machines, which shreds the sugar cane straw, consists of a set of shredding knives bolted in a spiral pattern to the equipment support at the axles. The knife blades, as well as the machine’s outlet grate, were developed with wear-resistant, high-strength steel.

The end result was a new sugar cane straw shredder for sugar cane waste, which could be used in boilers for energy recovery, like the cogeneration of heat and electricity.

The innovative use of wear-resistant steel extends the service life of the knives, lowers maintenance costs and delivers energy savings. In fact, the new shredders are roughly 40 percent more energy efficient than previous solutions.

Furthermore, the knives can stand up to 120 days of use—exactly half of the typical sugar cane harvest. For comparison, blades made from softer materials only last 48 hours in the process. Compared to conventional hammer shredders, these high-strength steel knife shredders perform significantly better, all the while ensuring the expansion of the renewable energy market.

Because of high-strength steel, Brazil is in an even better position to offer its expertise in sugar cane ethanol to nations worldwide, especially developing countries that could produce biofuels but still depend on oil.

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 Pictured here: Sergio and his co-workers doing community service with the Korea Steel Association

About Sergio’s Path to Korea

Colombia is actually home for Sergio. So how did he end up joining a Korean steelmaker company? Growing up Sergio was full of curiosity about other countries. He decided he wanted to learn Chinese and at the time the Beijing Olympics was taking place so travelling to China was the perfect choice to not only learn Chinese culture and language but also to experience the Olympics. While studying in Beijing, Sergio made good Korean friends that naturally led him to visit Korea.

 Pictured here: Sergio during his stay in Beijing

Raising Awareness about Korea and POSCO

Sergio came to Korea in 2011 and participated in POSCO’s global internship program. Prior to joining POSCO, Sergio says that he honestly did not know much about Korean companies. Now, not only can he speak confidently about POSCO and other Korean companies, he also can speak four languages! He is truly a globally talented person who can speak English, Spanish, Chinese and Korea. Going forward, it is his dream to use his multicultural background to help POSCO penetrate into Central and South America. POSCO sees Brazil as a key investment market so Sergio hopes developing business in Brazil will be a successful starting point for further business development in Central and South America.

Pictured here: Sergio hanging out with colleagues

Some Words of Advice on Working Overseas

Living and working in a foreign county is not always easy. In Sergio’s first few months living in Korea he had some amusing episodes because of his level of Korean. In one instance, instead of telling his boss ‘I will bring the newspaper’ he accidently spoke in a commanding tone saying ‘Bring the newspaper’.

Pictured here: Night out with fellow co-workers

Overcoming cultural differences and adjusting to work life was possible with the help of colleagues. In terms of work, Sergio spends most of his time using English and Spanish which are his first languages. However, Sergio was not afraid to go outside his comfort zone and he made the effort to socialize with coworkers outside the office. He is currently a part of the POSCO Steeler team which is POSCO’s corporate soccer team and it has helped him communicate in Korean with colleagues more easily.

Here’s some more advice for being recruited as top global talent for POSCO.

Pictured here: Sergio and his POSCO Steelers teammates

Korea is the fourth country to produce more than 3 worldsteel chairmen, behind Japan (9 times), the U.S. (8 times) and Germany (3 times). With this, Korea expects to strengthen its voice on major issues affecting the global steel industry as well as strengthen the status of the domestic steel industry.

CEO Chung Joon-Yang has been a member of the Executive Committee, the highest decision-making organization of worldsteel, since 2009, and was elected as Vice Chairman in 2012. Following his election as Chairman this year, CEO Chung Joon-Yang will hold the post for one year until the date of the next annual conference in October 2014.

The election of CEO Chung Joon-Yang as the leader of the global steel industry is testament to the latent strength underpinning POSCO’s success in achieving continuous growth despite the recent decline in the steel industry. Furthermore, the election reflects Korea’s ascendancy to becoming a steel technology export country from an importing country in less than half a century.

CEO Chung Joon-Yang was highly evaluated for his adroit understanding of steel technology having served as a steelworks head, his vast social network, and his activities as a member of the Executive Committee and as Vice Chairman, in which roles he has shown global leadership in many aspects including solving the current issues of the global steel industry and offering a sustainable vision of its future.

POSCO has been the subject of great interest throughout the global steel industry as a result of the company excelling its competitors by more than 5%p in terms of operating profit. Suffice it to say, World Steel Dynamics has selected POSCO as the ‘World’s Most Competitive Steelmaker’ for 4 straight years.

FINEX steelworks, which is a cutting edge steelmaking technology first to be successfully commercialized in 2007, has met with tremendous success in its export to China, strengthening POSCO’s position as a leading global steelmaker.

CEO Chung Joon-Yang, following his election to the post of worldsteel Chairman, commented, “I will focus on solving the various issues facing the global steel industry in my role as worldsteel Chairman through discussing and cooperating with all member companies. Furthermore, I will expand the association involvement of new rising steel companies from China, India, and South America for the balanced development of worldsteel as a whole.”

In his new role as worldsteel Chairman, CEO Chung Joon-Yang will give an opening speech at the China Automobile Steel Plate Seminar in Guangzhou, China, in October which is being hosted jointly with CISA. What’s more, he will carry out a range of activities to solve the steel industry’s current issues including △over-supply △raw material oligopoly △market development △competition with alternative materials.

At this year’s conference, Alexey Mordashov, Russia’s Severstal Chairman and former worldsteel Chairman, and Wolfgang Eder, Austria’s voestalpine Chairman, were elected as Vice Chairmen, and six companies including Italy’s ILVA S.P.A and 2 associations joined as new members.

The conference was attended by 300 representatives of the world steel industry with the item first on the agenda being an executive committee meeting and board of directors meeting held on the 6^th. On the 7^th and 8^th, when the annual conference was held, presentations were made including vis-à-vis long-term sustainability and policy trends regarding the environment and climate changes. The presentations were followed by on-site plant tours in Brazil including that of ArcelorMittal on the 9^th.