200 saplings planted across 1,500 pyeong of the CGL plant, supported by the City of Altamira

POSCO Mexico took the lead in creating a “green forest” at its Altamira CGL Plant in collaboration with the City of Altamira and the Mexican Water Resources Agency during a tree-planting event held on September 27.

The event was attended by Mayor Armando of Altamira, German, Director of the Mexican Water Resources Agency, and POSCO Mexico President Woo-il Kim.

Altamira, home to many petrochemical complexes, has actively pursued various carbon reduction initiatives. One such project, the Green Forest initiative, provides free saplings to environmentally responsible companies, helping create green spaces.

As part of the Green Forest project, POSCO Mexico planted 200 saplings, including jacaranda trees, rosewood, and flame trees, across 1,500 pyeong of unused land at the CGL plant.

Since 2022, POSCO Mexico has collaborated with the Mexican Water Resources Agency on the ‘Oasis Project,’ which aims to address water scarcity by recycling water, contributing to cost savings, and preventing environmental pollution. The recycled water will also irrigate the newly created green forest.

Mayor Armando of Altamira expressed his gratitude, saying, “Thank you to POSCO Mexico for participating in the green space project to help reduce carbon emissions. POSCO Mexico, which has received ESR certification for eight consecutive years and actively engages in ESG management, is a source of pride for Altamira. Despite this year’s severe drought and abnormal weather, let’s continue to work together to overcome this crisis.”

President Woo-il Kim added, “POSCO Mexico is actively participating in solving Mexico’s environmental challenges, including the Green Forest initiative and the Oasis Project. We will continue strengthening our cooperation with the local community, leading efforts to reduce carbon emissions and address water scarcity as part of our commitment to tackling climate change.”

Meanwhile, a day before the event, POSCO Mexico employees and their families participated in the “Love Lunchbox” volunteer initiative, providing meals to residents in need.

▲On September 27, POSCO Mexico held a tree-planting event at its Altamira CGL Plant in collaboration with the City of Altamira and the Mexican Water Resources Agency. From left: POSCO Mexico President Woo-il Kim, Mayor Armando of Altamira, and German, Director of the Mexican Water Resources Agency.

Recognized for efforts to transition to a low-carbon system, including the introduction of electric arc furnaces and the operation of a sustainability management council

POSCO was selected as the Sustainability Champion for the third consecutive year at the semi-annual member meeting of the World Steel Association, which was held in London, UK, on April 9 (local time).

▲Logo of the World Steel Association Sustainability Champion.

The World Steel Association has been awarding the title of Sustainability Champion since 2018 to member companies leading the steel industry in carbon neutrality and ESG initiatives. This year, 11 companies achieved this distinction, with POSCO earning the honor three times in a row since its first award in 2022.

To be named a Sustainability Champion, companies must fulfill four critical criteria: signatory to the Sustainable Development Charter, finalist in the Steelie Awards or the Safety & Health Recognition, publication of a sustainability report, and submission of sustainability data including Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) emissions data for materials and processes. Companies that meet these requirements are recognized as exemplary leaders in global ESG management.

In addition to meeting all four conditions, POSCO was recognized for its low-carbon transition efforts, including the introduction of electric arc furnaces and investments in Hydrogen Reduction Ironmaking Technology (HyREX), as well as new initiatives such as the establishment of a group safety council and a supply chain management council. These achievements have solidified POSCO’s status as a Sustainability Champion for the third consecutive year.

Furthermore, POSCO has been ranked as the most competitive steelmaker in the world by World Steel Dynamics for 14 consecutive years and continues to spearhead the global steel industry’s transition to carbon neutrality with innovations like its proprietary HyREX technology and the application of low-carbon bridge technologies.

September 6 is Resource Circulation* Day. It was established by the Ministry of Environment and the Korea Waste Association to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the Earth’s environment and recycling resources. The date was chosen because the numbers 9 and 6 look the same when either is turned upside down, embodying the meaning of “recirculation.” The government has commemorated the date every year since 2009 to spread public awareness that waste is a precious resource and convey the importance of practicing circulation in our daily lives. In celebration of Resource Circulation Day, this article examines the journey for Green Tomorrow that POSCO Group is taking with resource circulation.

*Resource circulation: It refers to efforts to save resources by reducing waste, reusing or recovering waste that has already been generated, and disposing of waste that cannot be reused or recovered with minimal impact on the environment.

Since the appointment of Jeong-woo Choi as Chairman in 2018, POSCO Group has declared the corporate philosophy of “Corporate Citizenship: Building a Better Future Tomorrow” and has placed its social and environmental responsibilities as the top priority throughout management. Although corporate citizenship was still a relatively new management concept at its declaration, ESG management has emerged as a global trend. It is again attracting attention as the right path for future management. POSCO Group is leading in ESG management by being the first Asian steel company to announce a carbon neutrality plan in 2020 and the first global steel company to establish an organization dedicated to ESG. Moreover, we recognize environmental protection and resource circulation as important social values and lead in moving our society toward a sustainable transition and circular economy.

Climate crisis and the importance of environmental protection

Humankind has enjoyed a convenient and abundant life by producing and consuming a wide range of products. However, environmental pollution became a critical problem as the consumption of resources and energy grew, which increased the amount of discarded waste. Moreover, the polluted environment has caused abnormal climate phenomena such as global warming which poses an existential threat to human life.

▲ Visitors to the 2023 World Climate Industry Expo are looking at POSCO’s Carbon Neutrality Roadmap.

Recognizing the climate crisis as an important management risk, POSCO Group is making efforts to respond to it, including ▲setting greenhouse gas reduction goals, ▲establishing an organization and management system, and ▲investing in environmental facilities. POSCO, in charge of steelmaking, the Group’s core business, has operated the Carbon Neutrality Committee as a control tower to guide the company toward “2050 Carbon Neutrality” since 2022. Other Group affiliates also have established a decision-making support system by operating an organization dedicated to carbon neutrality to establish the carbon neutrality roadmap and report risk factors related to climate change to the Board of Directors and top management of each affiliate.

Zero waste! Increasing energy efficiency and using renewable energy

POSCO International, in charge of the Group’s energy business, announced a plan to invest KRW 3.8 trillion for three years in line with the growth strategies of each sector in E&P (exploration and production), LNG (liquefied natural gas) infrastructure, power generation, and low-carbon energy beginning in 2023 when it merged with POSCO Energy. Based on the investment, it plans to complete the entire LNG value chain and continue to expand investment in environmental energy businesses such as new and renewable energy and hydrogen.

POSCO is focusing on improving energy efficiency in the steelmaking process. It recycles by-product gases generated during production to reuse them as fuel for processes or power plants, generating 81.6% of the electricity used at the steel mill. Moreover, it is minimizing by-product generation by increasing power generation efficiency through upgrading old and inefficient power generation facilities and developing the technology to predict the generation and use of by-products in real time.

▲ Solar panels installed on the rooftop and parking lots of POSCO Future M’s Sejong Anode Material Plant

POSCO Future M is securing eco-friendliness of its businesses by recovering and reusing waste heat generated during operations and increasing the efficiency of production facilities. A leading example is the solar panels installed on rooftops and parking lots of its business site. The company expects to secure an annual power generation of 3,122 MWh.

Reusing water resources, even wastewater

Recognizing that managing water resources in its business sites is an important issue for sustainable management, POSCO Group is committed to reducing water shortage risks by optimizing water management and expanding recycling. Pohang works has reduced freshwater use by 80,000 tons daily using recycled water from sewage treatment since 2015, and Gwangyang Works replaced 30,000 tons of freshwater use daily with water produced by a seawater desalination facility opened in 2014.

▲ Seawater desalination facilities with a daily production capacity of 30,000 tons operated by Gwangyang works

Last year, POSCO recycled 30% of the total water intake to lessen the local community’s water shortage risk. Furthermore, the company minimizes the generation of wastewater from its steel mills and recycles as much generated wastewater as possible. It discharges water that cannot be recycled through strict drainage treatment procedures or outsources the process to specialized companies.

New added values by converting by-products into resources and recycling

POSCO Group also operates recycling specializing subsidiaries such as PNR and POSCO HY Clean Metal in addition to minimizing discarded resources by converting by-products into resources and managing separate resource circulation goals.

POSCO was selected as a business site for Korea’s Resource Circulation Performance Management Program in 2018 and reuses more than 98% of by-products, such as slag, dust, and sludge, generated in steelmaking processes annually. The company generated 19,116,670 tons of waste last year and recycled 98.3%, excluding more than 300,000 tons that were incinerated and landfilled.

▲ View of POSCO HY Clean Metal’s secondary battery recycling plant

POSCO HY Clean Metal, located in Yulchon Industrial Complex in Jeollanam-do, conducts a resource recycling business that collects scraps and spent waste batteries generated by battery production and recovers valuable metals such as cobalt, nickel sulfate, and lithium hydroxide.

▲ Shell powder to be used in steelmaking is being unloaded at the loading dock of POSCO’s Gwangyang Steelworks in Gwangyang-si, Jeollanam-do.

Recognizing that limestone (CaO, 54%), the main component of shells, was similar to limestone (CaO, 51%) used in the steelmaking process, POSCO focused on converting shell powder into resources. Although there was no worldwide precedent of recycling shells as industrial resources, POSCO worked with suppliers, the government, and the local municipality to amend the related regulations and laws in 2021 to develop the technology to convert shells into limestone for sintering and quicklime for dehydration. It opened the way to process all 900,000 tons of abandoned waste shells and reduce 410,000 tons of carbon emission, making it an exemplary case of resource circulation.

▲ POSCO International and POSCO officials are applying identification marks to products at the ceremony to sign the Agreement for Steel Scrap Collection.

POSCO International will work with small and medium-sized enterprises to invest KRW 20 billion by 2025 to construct steel scrap collection bases nationwide and establish a procurement system to supply 500,000 tons of steel scraps to POSCO annually. Steel scraps have attracted a great deal of attention as a realistic measure to achieve Carbon Reduction in the steel industry by reducing carbon dioxide emissions to 25% or less compared to traditional methods that rely on coal.

▲ PosMent (L), a low-carbon construction material that replaced lime with granulated blast-furnace slag, and an artificial reef using PosMent in POSCO’s sea forest creation project

POSCO E&C proactively reduces carbon emissions by applying PosMent, a low-carbon cement, developed from POSCO’s steel by-products to construction sites. PosMent is a sustainable construction material that reduces carbon generated in cement production by up to 60% by replacing lime (calcium carbonate, CaCO3), a main cement component, with granulated blast-furnace slag. The first field application began in 2013, and 200,000 tons in 2021 and 370,000 tons in 2022 were applied. The figure is expected to increase to 470,000 tons or 53% of total cement use.

▲ Waste fishing net resource recycling project by eNtoB

eNtoB, POSCO Group’s maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) materials procurement company, is carrying out a resource circulation project to develop sustainable products where waste fishing nets, which are marine waste, are collected and the recyclable nylon and plastic are extracted. On the 3rd of last month, it signed a recirculated resource supply contract with NETSPA, a recycling social venture company, and began full-scale commercialization.

▲ POSCO Wide carries out community-sharing programs by transporting and delivering discarded office supplies to organizations and institutions in need.

Last year, the company opened a resource circulation platform called Jawon-Da-Itta (Resource Network) in a public service project to find and deliver office supplies to organizations and institutions that need them instead of discarding them. The project was recognized for its achievements in reducing carbon in everyday life and introduced as an excellent example of quantifying greenhouse gas reduction measures in the daily life sector at the Korean Pavilion of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) held in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, last year.

▲ POSCO E&C exhibiting public sculptures made from waste resources in 2022

POSCO E&C developed sustainable plates jointly with POSCO’s in-house venture, Iomtek, by combining waste plastic and slag powder, a by-product of steelmaking. It also held an exhibition of public sculptures made by upcycling scrap metal and machine parts left over from construction sites.

Moving on to a circular economy society beyond the linear economy

The linear economic growth model expressed as “make-consume-dispose” has enabled humanity to achieve rapid economic growth since the Industrial Revolution. However, it also caused other problems through wasted resources and continuous environmental destruction. Today’s circular economic model has emerged as the only alternative for sustainable growth. Its concept is to design the foundation considering recycling throughout the entire industrial process of “raw material-design-production-use” and promote efficient resource use and maximum circulation.

POSCO Group has recognized the transition to a circular economic society as an inevitable new paradigm and the key to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and is making plans to respond preemptively. In particular, in the secondary battery materials business, which has emerged as a new growth engine for POSCO and its century-long legacy, we will secure a stable supply chain that responds to the needs of environmental and social changes and build an industrial ecosystem where corporate growth and social value go hand-in-hand.

My Little Challenge puts meaning in building POSCO employees’ habits of considering the environment through various challenge activities such as △using tumblers △walking 10,000 steps a day △climbing stairs △using public transportation △reading ESG-related articles, and more for Carbon Reduction. In particular, the process of practicing the challenge can be communicated with colleagues in real-time through photos or text messages, allowing them to challenge small goals in their daily lives with colleagues rather than alone.

In My Little Challenge, not only the Carbon Reduction practice challenge, but also about 240 various challenges selected and registered autonomously by each department are registered including health-related challenges such as ’20 minutes a day exercise habit’, learning-related challenges such as reading books/certificate study, a thank you challenge, and more.

About 65% of the ongoing challenges are Carbon Reduction practice challenges. Then let’s learn more about the Carbon Reduction representative challenge selected by POSCO employees.

Challenge Example① Donating 5,000 steps a day (using the app ‘Big Walk’)

‘Gathering steps to make a better world’. The first representative challenge for Carbon Reduction selected by POSCO employees is “Donating 5,000 steps a day.”

But if anyone asks, “Is it possible to donate by steps?” answer “Yes” without a second of hesitation! There is a user-participating donation mobile platform (*Big Walk) where companies and organizations set up campaigns based on information from beneficiaries and receive donations from campaign participants to complete the campaign.

Taking care of health, reducing air pollution, and donating by ‘walking,’ the ‘donating 5,000 steps a day’ challenge is more than killing three birds with one stone. It is a representative challenge with POSCO’s corporate citizenship spirit by accumulating its steps as points through the app and contributing to society by donating its steps to a campaign for non-profit organizations set by companies and organizations.

Challenge example② Collecting plastic caps/bottleneck rings

‘Rediscovering the unused plastic’. The ‘Collecting plastic caps/bottleneck rings ‘ challenge is a challenge to collect and upcycle plastic bottle caps that are buried or incinerated as trash because they are not recycled in the sorting process even if they are discharged separately as recyclables.

Plastic bottles used in everyday life are collected separately, and bottle caps are collected and sent to a ‘plastic mill’ run by the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement to be reborn as tube squeeze for toothpaste tubes. The reborn tube squeeze will be distributed to challenge participants.

Challenge example③ Recording greenhouse gas emissions from own vehicles

‘A little caring for a healthy Earth’. Recently, activities have been underway around the world to reduce greenhouse gases, the main culprit of global warming. According to the National Institute of Environmental Research, Korea’s automobile greenhouse gas emissions account for 14% of the total greenhouse gases(Check!), so various policies and activities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles are lined up, and POSCO people are also joining this with a ‘recording greenhouse gas emissions from own vehicle‘ challenge.

The ‘Recording greenhouse gas emissions from own vehicle‘ challenge is a challenge that calculates greenhouse gases generated by vehicles when commuting to work and records it in the company chat window, or autonomously records greenhouse gas reductions when using public transportation, walking, or carpooling. If you record your greenhouse gas emissions, you can directly recognize how much greenhouse gas you have emitted, enabling small practices for Carbon Reduction, and participating in creating a healthy Earth by minimizing car use.

Challenge example④ Gold Spoon, Silver Spoon Challenge

‘Living habits for the environment begin with very small practices’. According to statistics from the Ministry of Environment, daily plastic emissions in Korea in the first half of last year recorded 853 tons, an increase of about 15% compared to the same period of the previous year, so the issue of disposable products in Korea is at a serious level.

POSCO’s My Little Challenge will host the ‘Gold Spoon, Silver Spoon Challenge’ to reduce these disposable products for practicing Carbon Reduction. It is a challenge of not using disposable spoon and chopsticks when ordering a lunch box from the company or bringing from home, and leave a message in the company app chat room such as “I used the spoon I brought from home on the 00th~’. It is one of POSCO’s eco-friendly representative challenges in that it can protect the environment while having a delicious lunch with colleagues.

POSCO plans to continue the challenge activities for each department by operating the ‘My Little Challenge’ on a seasonal basis. Through this, small but consistent corporate citizenship activities are expected to lead to individual habits of POSCO employees and further contribute to the rooted culture of POSCO.

Since 2005, the Davos Forum has been announcing the ‘Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations’ (hereinafter referred to as Global 100) through the Canadian media-investment consulting company, Corporate Knights.

Corporate Knights examined companies with significant global market capitalization to select the Global 100. Companies were evaluated on 12 main indices, including energy productivity, innovative capacity, staff turnover, and staff versus CEO compensation. In order to achieve high rankings, companies must score well on social, environmental and financial scores, rather than solely on financial measures.

This year’s Global 100 lists four Korean corporations, including POSCO. After ranking 30^th, the best ranking ever for Korean corporations in 2012, but POSCO wasn’t included in the Global 100 for the two years following. However, POSCO re-entered at 36^th this year, as the first evaluation conducted since the inauguration of CEO Ohjoon Kwon. On the other hand, Samsung Electronics ranked 45^th, LG Electronics ranked 51^st, and Shinhan Financial Group ranked 70^th.

POSCO’s highest ranking of any Korean corporation on the list shows that it has been recognized for the efforts of its staff and executives to create a good workplace with reduced staff turnover through sustainable management. It also brought positive results in terms of transparency of information release, including the *ESG integrated report by POSCO affiliates implemented since last year. POSCO was highly praised for the way it has carried out added-value improvements, such as making steel by-products resources and reusing, and in enhancing innovative capacity through R&D investment.

Along with the selection in the Global 100, POSCO has been selected as an excellent corporation in the SAM-Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for 10 years running, which is the first case for any company in the steel industry. In particular, POSCO has been awarded in three sectors; POSCO has won the ‘Industry Leader’ as well as the ‘Industry Mover’ who get the highest rated compared to last year, as well as ‘Gold Class’ for being in the 1% of industry leaders.

Meanwhile, POSCO was selected as the ‘No.1 steel competitiveness of the world’ last year by World Steel Dynamics (WSD), a global steel specialized analysis institute. It was the fifth time running to win the prestigious title. The WSD has conducted its evaluation based on 23 indices, including the size of production and profitability, technology innovation, price determination power, cost reduction, financial soundness and securing raw materials, among 36 steel corporations worldwide.

*ESG 
Since corporation results in the area of Environment, Social and Governance do not appear in the financial element, ESG is defined as the core evaluation element when deciding investment under the UN Principles for Responsible Investment.

POSCO was recently named by WSD as the world’s most competitive steelmaker for the seventh time in a row during the past five years. Apart from receiving credit for technological innovation and human resource management, POSCO has also been making continuous socio-economic and environmental efforts side by side with its stakeholders to create value and bolster mutual growth. The recently published 11^th annual sustainability report sums up these efforts. Let’s have a closer look.

About the 2013 Sustainability Report

[Download the 2013 Sustainability Report HERE]

First, the Report includes both financial and non-financial data.

POSCO and listed subsidiaries within the POSCO Family*, or those having more than KRW 1 trillion in sales are included in the consolidated ESG(environment, society, governing structure) data, which was verified by Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Second, we report ‘Key Issues’ which have high ranks in the materiality test.

The report also includes specific information on the issues selected from the materiality test in order to include detailed information that the stakeholders want to know.

Third, we gathered the opinions of internal and external stakeholders and reflected them in the materiality test before publishing this Report.

Previously, there were some difficulties in reflecting stakeholders’ opinions because they were gathered in the course of preparing the Report. For this Report, however, we listened to stakeholders’ opinions from the planning stage and linked them to the materiality analysis process.

Fourth, we reported the cases of CSV (Creating Shared Value), ‘a management principle that seeks opportunity for business in solving social problems’.

We marked CSV cases separately within the contents describing POSCO’s management activities, including building a Saemaul Village in Ethiopia, training agricultural leaders in Mongolia, the Benefit Sharing Program, and Techno Partnership.

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Note: 2013 Sustainability Report further references

Reporting approach
The 2013 Report is based on the GRI (Global Reporting Initiatives) G4 guideline, ISO 26000, UN Global Compact, and POSCO’s unique report publishing process. The financial information reporting standards and definitions are based on the K-IFRS (Korean International Financial Reporting Standards.

Period of reporting
POSCO publishes the report annually. This Report contains information from January 1st, 2013 to December 31st, 2013. In some instances information up to April 2014 were included. The corporate governance section is based on the decisions made by the Board of Directors at the meeting held on March 14, 2014.

Scope of reporting
The Report contains the sustainability activities and performances of Pohang Steelworks, Gwangyang Steelworks, Pohang headquarters and the Seoul office. The ESG (Environment, society, governing structure) data covers POSCO and nine POSCO subsidiaries that are listed in the stock exchange or have more than KRW 1 trillion in sales. Information on shareholders, investors, and new green growth businesses cover the whole POSCO subsidiary.

Independent assurance
Assurance on this Report was conducted by Samil PwC, an independent assurance institution, in order to assure stakeholders on the credibility of the major data and publishing process of the Report. Assurance was conducted in accordance with ISAE3000 and AA1000AS Type II.

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POSCO 2013 Highlights

Why don’t we take a look at what efforts POSCO made during the year 2013, and their results?

[Click titles for details]

1. POSCO WINS THE ‘WORLD’S MOST COMPETITIVE STEELMAKER’ AWARD FOR 4 CONSECUTIVE YEARS!

On February 1, POSCO was named “The World’s Most Competitive Steelmaker” for the fourth time in a row. This was the result of the evaluation conducted by WSD (World Steel Dynamics) on 34 of the world’s steelmakers in 23 categories including production capacity, profitability, and technology innovation. POSCO had held the top position from 2002 through 2004, then was surpassed by Russian and Indian steelmakers, but regained top spot again in 2010 after 6 years, and has hence remained no.1 for 4 consecutive years.

2. POSCO RENOVATES WORLD’S BIGGEST FURNACE AT GWANGYANG STEELWORKS!

On June 7, after 108 days of repair works, POSCO held the blow-in ceremony for Gwangyang Steelworks’ No.1 blast furnace that was renovated as the world’s largest blast furnace. After its third enhancement made in 2013, Furnace 1’s volume now reaches 6,000 bigger than the previously world’s largest furnace (5,800) built by Shagang Group in China. The Gwangyang blast furnace applies a new cooling system, a production technology involving oxygen enrichment, and reduces fuel consumption by using high-temperature reducing gas efficiently, achieving a cost effective and environmentally friendly process.

3. DAEWOO INTERNATIONAL STARTS PRODUCTION AT MYANMAR GAS FIELD

On June 22, Daewoo International successfully began production at the Mya gas field, located in the northeastern sea of Myanmar. The Myanmar gas field project came in full swing when Daewoo International signed a PSC with the Myanmar Government. The gas produced was passed through the subsea pipeline, subsea production facility, and the production platform to check the gas production and treatment facility, and began selling to CNPC, a Chinese state-owned petroleum company from the gas selling location in Kyauk Phyu, west of Myanmar, since July 2013!

4. DECLARATION OF THE NEW ETHICAL MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the proclamation of POSCO’s Code of Conducts, POSCO held a declaration ceremony for the New Ethical Management principle. The new principle, dubbed “Happiness Management” presents the vision “Let’s Come Together to Build a Better World!” and its 3 core values – future, common good, and win-win.

5. POSCO INCLUDED IN THE SUSTAINABILITY INDEX FOR NINE CONSECUTIVE YEARS!

For the first time in the steel industry, POSCO was included in the Sustainability Index by SAM-Dow Jones as a leading company for 9 consecutive years! In the 2013 evaluation, 31 steelmakers were evaluated, and POSCO received 77 points – 3 points higher than the previous year – and was selected as an outstanding company for the 9th consecutive year.

6. FIRST EXPORT OF FINEX TECHNOLOGY

On September 22, POSCO signed an MOA with state-owned Chongqing Iron and Steel Company, to construct a FINEX integrated steel plant. POSCO and Chongqing will each invest 50% in the joint project to build the FINEX integrated steel plant with an annual capacity of 3 million tons.

7. 1% FOUNDATION INAUGURATED!

POSCO’s 1% Foundation was officially inaugurated on November 18. The 1% Foundation was first started in October 2011, where executives and management-level personnel donated 1% of their salaries. POSCO and 26 POSCO Family companies participate in the campaign. The Foundation will implement sharing campaigns using the KRW 4 billion’s worth fund raised through donations during 2013 and the company’s matching grant.

8. INTEGRATED STEEL PLANT IN INDONESIA BEGINS OPERATION

On December 23, POSCO held the blowing-in ceremony for the 3 million tons/year blast furnace in Cilegon, Indonesia. Krakatau POSCO is expected to produce 1.8 million tons of slab and 1.2 million tons of thick plates annually. Krakatau POSCO will secure the domestic sales network which can fetch higher prices than exporting the products, and plans to sell 1.5 million tons of slab and 600 thousand tons of thick plates in the Indonesian market during 2014.

POSCO’s vision is to become a company “loved by the people and admired by the world.” As CEO Ohjoon Kwon promised in his foreword to this report, POSCO will fulfill its duties and obligations as a corporate citizen. As a company built upon the very wishes and aspirations of the nation, POSCO will remember that it is forever in debt to the people and act accordingly. From the endeavors in preserving biodiversity to sharing with those in need through the 1% foundation, POSCO’s corporate philosophy will always be about the betterment of humanity.Thank you.