Automotive coated steel, one of POSCO’s World Premium Products (WPP), is a high-grade product that requires a high level of sophisticated technology. Only 20 out of 800 steel companies in the world can produce it at this time. Last year, POSCO sold approximately 9 million tons of automotive steel sheets, accounting for 10% of the global automotive steel sheet market.

The ‘Smart Solution for Coating Weight Control Based on AI‘ is a technology that drastically reduces the deviation of coating weight by using artificial intelligence to precisely control the Continuous Galvanizing Line (CGL), the primary technology used in automotive steel sheet production.

In particular, this technology uses an automated control technology that predicts the coating weight in real time and accurately meets the target coating weight by combining the coating weight production model of the artificial intelligence technique with the control model of the optimization technique.

A developer and worker are seen in the operating room monitoring the optimal coating weight predicted through artificial intelligence. POSCO succeeded in developing the ‘Smart Solution for Coating Weight Control Based on AI‘ through a joint industry-university effort, and applied it to POSCO 3CGL last January. With artificial intelligence, it is now possible to collect hundreds of different types of data in real time, as well as accurately predict and control target coating weights.

Coating weight control is a highly-sophisticated technology that keeps the thickness of the coating layer consistent even when operating conditions change at the request of automakers. When coating weight is controlled manually, quality deviates depending on the skill level of the worker, inevitably resulting in significant amounts of wasted zinc. However, the plating process is now automatically controlled by artificial intelligence, increasing the quality of POSCO’s automotive coated steel while decreasing production costs. These new automated processes have also helped to increase work efficiency and productivity with workers.

Since the inauguration of CEO Ohjoon Kwon in 2014, POSCO has been preparing to take the lead in smart solutions by integrating AI into its smart factories. Last June, POSCO Technical Research Laboratories identified the need for an automated coating weight control system and collected the relevant data after discussing with several departments. POSCO worked with Prof. Jon-seok Lee of the Department of Systems Management Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, Korea, to develop the artificial intelligence coating weight prediction model algorithm. Prof. Lee is an expert in statistics, data mining, machine learning and optimization methodologies. He collaborated with POSCO researchers to develop the coating weight prediction program after analysis of the plating process.

Starting in July 2016, a beta program was introduced for two months. After successful completion of the beta test, POSCO Technical Research Laboratories added an additional program to ensure quality control even under changing operating conditions.

The core AI technology that was applied to the coating weight control automation is a self-learning software that utilizes big data deep learning techniques. This method operates in real time allowing the AI program to stay up-to-date by analyzing hundreds of different types of data generated during the plating process. It can accurately predict and control coating weight through real-time, even if equipment has been replaced or operating conditions have changed.

The completed coating weight control automation solution was applied to POSCO’s 3CGL line in Gwangyang on a trial basis for approximately 2 months, enhancing accuracy and stability. Normally, when operating manually, deviations in the coating weight can extend up to 7g per m², but with POSCO’s AI-based technology, this number is reduced to 0.5g per m². After a technical verification process, the technology was incorporated into the 3CGL line on January 5.

To maintain its position as a global leader in automotive coated steel technology, POSCO is planning to apply this coating weight control automation solution to other CGLs at home and abroad, like the recently opened Thailand CGL. POSCO is also taking steps to introduce artificial intelligence technology to the manufacturing processes of other steel products while also continuing to build smart factories that can help POSCO continue to be a leader in the steel industry.

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The completion ceremony of Thailand CGL (Continuous Galvanizing Line), which has an annual production capacity of 450,000 tons, was held on August 31 in the Amata City Industrial Estate in Rayong, Thailand. Over 250 people attended the ceremony, including POSCO CEO Ohjoon Kwon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Tanasak Patimaprakorn, Minister of Industry Atchaka Sibunruang, Rayong Governor Somsak Suwansujarit, Korean Ambassador to Thailand Kwangil Noh and employees of local clients.

Members of the Thailand government and executives from parent companies, including POSCO CEO Ohjoon Kwon (featured in the middle), participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony for the completion of POSCO’s Thailand CGL on August 31 in Rayong Province, Thailand.

“Thailand is the hub of the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) that was launched last year, and is positioning itself as the automotive production base in Southeast Asia as well as the center of the home appliances industry,” claimed Kwon in the welcoming speech that day. “With today’s completion of Thailand CGL, POSCO will be devoted to becoming a total solutions partner that provides differentiated products and customized solutions in Thailand, while also creating value and growing with our clients.”

POSCO CEO Ohjoon Kwon and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Tanasak Patimaprakorn shaking hands after handwriting a message on a coil produced in Thailand CGL.

The completed CGL is a premium automotive steel sheet production base that began construction in September 2014 with a total investment of $300 million. POSCO plans to expand into the premium automotive steel sheet market in Thailand by supplying the products manufactured at the new operation to global automakers and parts manufacturers such as Toyota, Nissan and Ford stationed within the country. The company also plans on providing the processing services of POSCO-TBPC, which is a processing center near Bangkok.

Thailand is one of the biggest automobile producers in the world, with more than 50% (2 million vehicles a year) of the automobile production capacity in Southeast Asia. It also has a large-scale automobile market, in which China’s SAIC Motor will be establishing production facilities with a production capability of 200,000 by 2017, and where Japanese automakers are constantly expanding their facilities.

In particular, with the recent zero-tariff measures taken among AEC member states and the Thai government’s eco-friendly car industry policy, the Thai market has high growth potential that will expand to an annual production capacity of 2.8 million by 2020.

Automakers and parts manufacturers in Japan have been advancing steadily in this region since the 1960s. In 2013, to supply materials to Japanese companies on site, steelmakers such as JFE and NSSMC completed automotive steel sheet plants with capacities of 400,000 tons and 360,000 tons, respectively.

Despite the increasing production scale of automotive steel sheets in Thailand, the supply still falls short of demand, which inevitably results in greater dependence on imports from overseas markets. Thus, POSCO plans to build stronger strategic partnerships by smoothly supplying materials to global automakers and parts manufacturers (including Japanese companies) in Thailand, and to expand sales of premium plating materials in the automotive steel sheet market. Accordingly, POSCO reviewed the project to establish a local production subsidiary in 2011, launched the CGL project in 2014 and finally completed the construction on August 31, 2016.

POSCO-TCS employees will contribute to the reinvention of POSCO the Great by securing a leading competitive edge in the automotive steel sheet market in Southeast Asia.

By completing the plant, POSCO has established an optimized solution marketing system in Southeast Asia, covering departments from production to processing, sales and technical support with the local processing subsidiary and the production facility in Vietnam. POSCO will be able to strengthen its position in competition with global steelmakers by expanding the production capacity for automotive steel sheets in Thailand, in addition to its production output from India and China.

With the completion of Thailand CGL, POSCO’s production capacity for automotive steel sheets overseas has increased to 2.25 million tons a year. POSCO also plans to establish and extend the CGL operation in Gwangyang and China, operating seven lines in Korea and six lines overseas, thereby producing more than 9 million tons this year. After 2018, the company will complete a 10-million-ton sales system to secure its place as the world’s best supplier of automotive steel sheets.

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The busy Mexican automobile industry has ushered in a valuable new asset—a steel galvanizing plant from Korea.

On January 28^th in Altamira, Tamaulipas, POSCO completed construction on its second Continuous Galvanizing Line (CGL) in Mexico. The plant has added 500,000 tons of steel added to POSCO’s yearly capacity in the region. With its completion, POSCO has become Mexico’s largest producer of plated steel sheets for automobiles.

[box] What’s a Continuous Galvanizing Line? Almost nothing is stronger than steel—but without protection from water and weather, the backbone of the world’s industries will rust. Galvanization is the process of applying zinc coating to bare steel in order to prevent rust and make steel more durable. Steel can be protected from rust by paint or powder, too. But coating steel with zinc is more permanent. Galvanization means that even if steel’s painted surface is scratched off, it won’t corrode. Galvanized steel is therefore used for products that need to be extra durable—like cars. In a continuous galvanizing line (CGL), ribbons of fresh, newly-pressed steel are treated with zinc as they roll down a factory in a never-ending line. It’s kind of like a cafeteria line… if zinc were your lunch! Efficient, right? [/box]

In a ceremony commemorating the factory’s opening, POSCO welcomed more than 300 people, including Mexican government officials and employees from client companies like Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Volkswagen. The ceremony was led by key figures like Egidio Torre Cantú, governor of Tamaulipas, Seonghoa Hong, Korean ambassador to Mexico, and POSCO’s own CEO, Joonyang Chung.

Chung addressed close partnership between Mexico and Korea as a major factor in the new plant’s success. “The 2CGL factory is an extension of the road to friendship that POSCO and Mexico have been developing since our Mexico office was established in 1981,” he said. “I would like to give my deepest thanks to the many government officials, client companies, and suppliers who made successful completion of this factory possible. POSCO will continue in its efforts to supply premium quality automobile steel plates.”

In recent years, Mexico’s role in the world’s automobile industry has jumped by leaps and bounds. Companies like Volkswagen, Chrysler, GM, and Renault Nissan entered Mexico chasing the country’s low labor costs as well as its proximity to the USA, which is the world’s second-largest automobile market.

Nearly 1,000 global parts companies followed, including Autotech and Benteler Automotive, giving Mexico’s production market some of the high growth potential in existence.

Now, the country is the world’s 5^th-largest automobile export country. Last year, it exported 2.4 million automobiles. Honda, Mazda, and Nissan are all upping their Mexican production lines for new steel plates as a result.

POSCO’s Role

2CGL, as the new galvanizing line is called, is POSCO’s second plant in Altamira. The company opened its first Mexican CGL in 2009. Combined, the two plants have 900,000 tons of automobile steel plate production capacity.

The main product of 2CGL will be a type of galvanized steel plate used in the exterior panels of high-end automobiles. The most in-demand products are the “GI Ace,” which has improved coating and processing capabilities, and the “780㎫ class AHSS steel”, a premium-grade steel plate that is lighter but more resistant to external impacts. The plates’ high quality and demand from the world’s leading automobile manufacturers is expected to add even more value to Mexico’s industry as a result.

In addition to its automobile steel plate factories, POSCO also has four steel processing centers in Mexico: POSCO-MPPC Plants 1, 2, and 3; plus POSCO-MAPC.

Contribution to the local economy and promotion of the automobile market are among POSCO’s major goals in Mexico. It also strives for sustainable growth in the local community.

A 500,000 ton annual capacity 2CGL factory in Mexico, completed by POSCO on January 28^th, 2014. With the establishment of 900,000 tons of production capacity in the country, POSCO hopes to secure a foundation from which they can lead in the local industry’s production of high added-value products.

A total of fourteen trainees from machinery, electricity and other sectors took OJT sessions for cold rolling process, including the general educations about PCM and CAL equipment processors, from POSCO’s global cold rolling-plating support group. With the program’s completion on August 23, the trainees will head back to POSCO Maharashtra to display their abilities as POSCO’s valuable engineers.

Their experiences from the curriculum at Gwangyang Steelworks are expected to be fully utilized once the construction of the cold rolling plant in India is finished in June 2014. When the plant is put into full operation, POSCO Maharashtra would become the biggest automotive steel sheet manufacturer in the region, with the annual production capacities of 450,000 tons for CGL, 1.8 million tons for PCM and 1 million tons for CAL.

Before the construction of CGL in Guangdong, POSCO had manufactured auto steel plates in the Gwangyang Steelworks in Korea and supplied the products to POSCO China and 11 other manufacture centers to complete and sell them across the nation. Now, POSCO is capable of offering ever more optimized customer services with the advanced production line to meet local clients’ needs in a timely manner. Furthermore, we anticipate POSCO to hold a firmer stance as a global steel manufacturer by acquiring an overseas production base in China, a highly booming nation with large scale automotive industries.

CEO Chung said “POSCO’s CGL in Guangdong will play a vital role for promoting the province’s status as a core global production base for motor industry and related fields. It will be assisted with high-end auto steel plates and household steel plates produced in the new production line.”

After the ceremony, the CEO met with Hu Chunhua, Secretary of a Guangdong provincial Party Committee who also congratulated the completion of CGL and praised the contribution made by POSCO. CEO Chung agreed with the secretary’s appraisal and illustrated his beliefs in the mutual development of Guangdong and POSCO as he felt confident in the partnership between the two.

POSCO will continue with the achievement by planning to manufacture 450,000 tons of galvanized steel sheets annually from the new manufacturing base, working with POSCO-CFPC in Guangdong, POSCO-CSPC in Jiangsu as well as 11 other manufacture centers in China. The products will be supplied to Toyota, Honda, Nissan, GM, Volkswagen, Hyundai, KIA and local car manufacturers.

Pohang Works, Gwangyang Works and the POSCO head office in Seoul are already familiar POSCO establishments to Koreans. But did you know that you can find more POSCO centers practically all over the world? Yes, POSCO is indeed spread out throughout the globe.

From India to China and to Australia

POSCO has three main business quarters in Dubai, Mongol, and Western Australia. Thirty-eight established companies can be found in various countries, such as POSCO China Holdings, Qingdao Pohang, POSCO Vietnam, POSCO India and POSCO Japan. Today, POSCO is expanding its influence, by building production bases in Indonesia and India. POSCO built its first integrated steel plant in Indonesia and is currently building another one in India, where we can expect a positive increase of production level. What’s more, POSCO is running fourteen manufacturing centers in fourteen Chinese cities of Zhangjiagang, Chungdo, Daeryun and Guangdong. In Australia, POSCO operates Fomax, Sutton Forest and API ore mines.

Propelling iron and steel industry, by connecting North and South America

Today, POSCO is expanding its influence as a power-supplier of iron and steel industry throughout the American continent. In North America, Mexico’s CGL factory is producing steel plates for automobiles, while in South America, investing in raw materials and preparing for integrated steel plants are actively being progressed. In addition, Bolivia is eagerly involved with Lithium development. POSCO holds offices in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as well as six other mutual establishment companies, namely POSCO America, POSCO Canada, POSCO Uruguay, POSCO Mexico.

POSCO in Europe and Africa

POSCO has EU offices located at Dusseldorf, Germany, with affiliated associations of Prague and London substations. In addition, POSCO has four other foreign mutual establishment companies. Currently, POSCO is propelling a collaborative business of Titanium slabs in Kazakhstan. Aside from this, POSCO is also pushing ahead investment for supplying raw materials and rare gold from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, South Africa, Congo and other African countries.

POSCO is making a leap forward globally, growing as an elite corporation

POSCO is increasingly taking an active role throughout the world. Our future agenda includes pioneering into Russian Siberia, the three other Chinese territories (Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Jilin), the Far East, the Bering Sea, the Arctic Ocean and the polar regions and oceans to further secure a supply for raw materials and for an expansion of material production regions. On the agenda are also activities that reflect POSCO’s value on contribution to the international society. POSCO provided emergency kits for natural disasters and our student volunteer group built houses in the region. POSCO promises to become an elite corporation not only for Korea but globally as well.