Chung Joon-yang, POSCO’s chief executive officer and chairman, held a meeting with Cameroon Prime Minister Philemon Yang on July 23 and entered into an MOU for cooperation on steel industry development and offshore plant fields, the businesses Cameroonian government has been striving for.

Chairman Chung Joon-yang signed an MOU on ‘Steel Industry Cooperation’ and ‘Offshore Plant Cooperation’ with the Cameroon government at the Cameroon Prime Minister’s official residence. From the left, Minister Fuh of the Industrial Mining Technology Development Division, Chairman Chung Joon-yang, Cameroon Prime Minister Philemon Yang and Chairman Nyassa of the CNIC Board of Directors.

POSCO, which has served a pivotal role for Korea’s 5-year economic development plan in the 1970s, will be joining hands with Africa’s newly rising nations to pass on technology and know-how in the steel and offshore plants.

Cameroon has 5 billion tons of iron ore deposits and produces deoxidizing gas, which are essential for steel-making. Also, it is ideally located to stably supply steel materials to countries around the Gulf of Guinea. This fact will be a great boost for POSCO because the area has been showing more than 8 percent growth rate for recent years in terms of annual steel consumption.

Since 2011, Cameroonian government has requested supports from POSCO for the development of the nation’s steel industry. In response, POSCO proposed the ‘Cameroon Steel Industry Development Policy’ in 2012 and provided necessary supports to boost Cameroon’s newly emerging industry. With the MOU signed by Chairman Chung and Prime Minister Yang, POSCO will continue working with a suitable model to bolster the steel industry of the West Africa.

Cameroon is also located at the center of the Gulf of Guinea which produces more than 4 million tons of crude oil daily, making it an optimal location for jack up rigs and offshore plant repair. POSCO will additionally sign cooperation MOU with the shipyard operated by the Cameroon government, carrying out investment cooperation as well as technological training in the offshore plant repair field, and searching for joint project opportunities.

What is ‘World’s Most Competitive Steelmaker’ Award?

From 2002, WSD has been analyzing global steel markets and rating the world’s leading steel manufacturers on 23 categories: production volume, profitability, technology renovation, pricing power, cost reduction, financial solidity and securing raw materials.

POSCO Receives High Points with Labor Mastery and Technology Renovation

The Steel Success Strategies XXVIII, one of the biggest steel industry conferences in the world, was held by WSD at Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel between June 18th and 19th. As a part of the conference, WSD announces which company is leading the industry by excelling all of its competitors in terms of various business aspects.

For this time, POSCO received evenly high marks in all areas, recording 7.73 out of 10 points. POSCO was highly evaluated for its labor mastery, ‘FINEX’ and energy plate manufacturing technologies. Expansion of high value added products and exploration of newly emerging markets also received positive assessment.

CEO Chung Joon-yang Delivers Special Speech

Chung Joon-yang, POSCO’s chief executive officer and chairman, was also invited as ‘Highlight Speaker’ on the second day of the conference. CEO Chung introduced POSCO’s growth dynamics and its history of continuous developments and innovations.

The Chairman talked about how POSCO has been driving a consistent growth over the past four years via leading innovative business activities and concreting the global management system. He also talked about POSCO’s efforts to amplify the company’s global competitiveness by creating high value added products. Chairman Chung stressed that it is vital for POSCO’s ‘World Best’ spirit to overcome the sluggish global economy.

Growing Together with ‘SPICEE’

Chairman Chung also explained the importance of building a sound corporate eco-system by adopting a better sense of partnership with their employees, stakeholders and the surrounding environment. He emphasized POSCO’s unique concept of ‘SPICEE,’ an acronym for ‘Society,’ ‘Partner,’ ‘Investor,’ ‘Customer,’ ‘Employee’ and ‘Environment,’ to highlight the significance of mutual cooperation and development. POSCO believes a positive synergy between these factors will enhance POSCO to become a firm of endearment. He said, “We must strive to transform the organization from a great company to the Firm of Endearment by working closely with every SPICEE element.”

‘Hello, POSCO’ would like to thank all of you for the award we received from WSD. POSCO will continue sailing towards our goal to become a more loved and respected steelmaker by everyone. So, stay tuned with us at ‘Hello, POSCO’ and we will keep posting great stories of the journey.

It was their second encounter since CEO Chung had visited Google’s headquarters in April, 2012. Through using ‘Hangouts,’ a video conference solution by Google, the meeting was held for about half an hour. During the smartly held meeting, Mr. Chung said “POSCO’s Smart Workplace (SWP) is shifting the way POSCO operates and its corporate culture to a great extent. This revolutionary platform, with speed, openness and information technologies from cutting-edge corporates such as Google, is being fused with POSCO’s unique corporate culture.” Chairman Schmidt replied by saying “The momentum POSCO has shown for these changes is very surprising.”

POSCO’s SWP consists of communication and cooperative work solutions via Google’s Gmail, Google+, Google Search and other tools. Since the launch, there has been monthly average of 14,000 transmissions of exchanging knowledge and ideas amongst POSCO’s employees. Also, costs for off-line meetings and reports have been cut down by about 30 percent given the online working solution. The times spent for decision-making procedures illustrated a 63 percent reduction per day with the mobile office environment having no time and space limitations.

Since SWP was introduced POSCO employees have been able to engage their tasks through smartphones or PCs in real time at wherever they may be. As the figures show above, business decisions can now be determined much faster than before as SWP provides quicker communication and cooperation. Notably, a knowledge share system has been constructed to allow POSCO’s entire staff around the globe to inquire, search, access and compile information on specific issues. The system is designed to maximize POSCO’s collective intelligence to synergize its operations and productivity.

POSCO is planning to provide ‘know-hows’ of constructing SWP environment for its mutual investment companies by the end of 2013. In collaboration with Google, the new, revolutionary culture will be broadly shared with every POSCO employees. Keep watching out for the future POSCO and Google are making.

During an annual meeting of the World Steel Association (worldsteel) in New Delhi, India, Mr. Chung was appointed as one of the two vice chairmen. He is expected to become worldsteel chairman in October 2013 as precedents complied by worldsteel, and will serve his term from 2013 until 2014.

[box] What is worldsteel?

worldsteel is the international trade body for the iron and steel industry. The association represents approximately 170 steel producers (including 17 of the world’s 20 largest steel companies), national and regional steel industry associations and steel research institutes. worldsteel members represent around 85% of world steel production. The purpose of the association is to promote steel and the steel industry to customers, the industry, media and the general public. worldsteel is a non-profit organization with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.[/box]

This is a remarkable honor for POSCO as a whole and for our CEO Mr. Chung as well on a personal level. We are glad and excited that through Mr. Chung’s appointment to worldsteel’s executive body will strengthen POSCO’s global status, as well as upgrade Korea’s role in the international steel industry. However, even before receiving this title of the Vice Chairman, Mr. Chung was praised by the international steel community for his work as an executive member of the Executive Committee, which is the top decision-making body within the institution that also oversees worldsteel’s day-to-day work.

This 46th annual gathering was attended by over 200 CEOs of leading global steelmakers, including Chung and ArcelorMittal Chairman Lakshmi Mittal, and heads of steel-related institutions.

Let’s look at who else attended the meeting. Maybe you might recognize a few. On the first row, from the right, are Alexey Mordashov, CEO of Severstal in Russia, next to Lakshmi Mittal of ArcelorMittal, Mr. Chung of POSCO, and CEO Zhang Xiaogang of Ansteel in China. Other participants of worldsteel’s 46th annual meeting included Chairmen John P. Surma of US Steel and Shoji Muneoka, CEO of Nippon Steel & Sumimoto Metal Corporation.

In this meeting, worldsteel members shared and discussed their 2013 Agenda, some of the challenges and necessary changes the international steel community faces, and new technological researches to the solution. Here, POSCO presented POSCO Body Concept-Electric Vehicle (PBC-EV) to the world audience. This is our newest and the most ambitiously created product. PBC-EV is both light in weight and sturdy in sustainability, yet it can be produced with a low-cost investment.

As becoming the Vice Chairman of worldsteel, Mr. Chung emphasized some of the most important issues faced by the global steel industries, such as handling of raw materials, adjusting of supply and demand and strengthening sustainability for the benefit of all steel community. Furthermore, “Global POSCO Strategy,” which POCO is strongly pushing for will also excel greatly. One of Mr. Chung’s most anticipated actions also include effectively mediating an active interaction between the founding members of worldsteel (most of whom located in Europe and America) and the emerging industries of Asia.