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.

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.