The bottom of the Gram 15-inch – made with POSCO’s ‘E-Form’ magnesium alloy sheet

In 2015, POSCO developed the ‘E-Form’ magnesium alloy, which significantly increases magnesium’s ability to be molded at room temperature (magnesium is known to have poor forming ability at low temperatures). The alloy was applied to the bottom of the Gram 14-inch and 15-inch.

Instead of stopping with the ‘E-Form’ alloy, POSCO continued to make further improvements and rolled out its ‘E-Form Plus’ alloy which demonstrated improved formability. LG Electronics incorporated the use of the alloy into the 13, 14, and 15-inch Gram in 2017, further solidifying their partnership.

The 2017 version of Gram features a battery life of up to 24 hours, a 40% larger cooling fan against heat, a backlit keyboard for enhanced ease of use and dual-channel memory slots for more convenient memory upgrading. In addition to these improvements, the 2017 Gram laptops recorded a lower or equivalent weight compared to the existing models [940g (13.3-inch model), 970g (14.0-inch model) and 1,090g (15.6-inch model)]. The Gram 15-inch won the 2016 iF Design Awards’ Gold Award and a Red Dot Design prize, and was also named the world’s lightest 15.6-inch laptop in the Guinness World Records.

The 2017 LG “All Day Gram” (courtesy of LG Electronics’ official blog)

The growth of the entire laptop market is slowing down due to the emergence of smartphones and tablets but ultra-light and slim laptops are enjoying growth at a rate of 15% to 20%, respectively, each year. According to market research firm, Juniper Research, when Intel announced its ultra-light laptop concept in 2011, shipments of ultra-light laptops throughout the world amounted to only 3.7 million units in 2011; but in 2016, they soared to 178 million units. And in 2017, ultra-light laptops are expected to account for 42.7% of the entire laptop market.

By steadily developing customized materials and processing solutions for its customers, POSCO is working to position magnesium alloy sheets as a valuable material for a variety of mobile products.

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In the morning of August 26th, Longjing City’s Guinness Record challenge for the world’s biggest Gayageum chorus performance was held at the Hailan River Sports Complex. A group of 854 Gayageum performers, ranging from a 9-year-old girl to a 70 years old grandmother gathered around in Hanbok, the traditional Korean dress, to fill up the ground with their passions.

The event was sponsored by POSCO China and the Director of Corporate Staff Department Kam Gyu-sik congratulated the magnificent performance by saying, “The performance you will be delivering today is to be named as the world’s biggest Gayageum chorus performance by the Guinness Book of World Record. POSCO China is humbly honored to be a part of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture’s relentless efforts to spread its culture to the world.”

The performance was orchestrated by the professor of Gayageum at Yanbian University Kim Seong-sam to play Arirang, Korea’s traditional melody rhyme, and a traditional Chinese song Jasmine, rearranged as a new beautiful harmony.

After 20 minutes of breathtaking performance, an inspector from Guinness World Records declared and confirmed that Longjing City’s Gayageum orchestra was successful to deliver the world’s biggest simultaneous Gayageum performance ever. When the official Guinness certificate was handed to the Mayor of Longjing, crowds and performers cheered for the great achievement, accompanied by splendid firecrackers set off to celebrate the new world record holders.

Behind the success of Longjing City, there were local elementary and middle schools which have been regularly running Gayageum classes for their pupils. Also, there were teachers, civil servants and members of local literature group and university for senior citizens.

When we visited their practice hall, some of the performers were wearing plasters on their fingers. It showed how hard they were practicing the Gayageum over and over again. A little boy was also working hard to get used to his instrument for the performance. He told us, “It hurt a little bit when I first began but I can put up with such pain because I am proud of my hometown, challenging for the Guinness World Record.” By listening to his strong ambition, we could realize the degree of passion the performers were sharing amongst them.

Before the performance, ‘Hello, POSCO’ had a chance to talk to the lady in above photo who came to the sports complex with her daughter for practice. She was representing the local government to be a part of the Gayageum chorus and said she was more than happy to support her daughter’s zest for playing the musical instrument and hope this opportunity could better her team work spirit.

Ms. Lee Geum-nyu was born in Longjing and has been living in the city for the past 63 years. When we asked why she volunteered to join the challenge, Ms. Lee answered, “I am getting old and when would I have this kind of opportunity to learn how to play the Gayageum? Also, this is something I can do for my home town.”

Notably, the performance was reported by CCTV, China’s state television broadcaster, showing how important the challenge was. By the success of achieving the Guinness World Record, Longjing City has marked an important page of its long history.

Since 2011, POSCO China is also supporting the City’s continuous engagement to maintain the cultural heritage with the Longjing Social Contribution Fund to sponsor their education programs for Longjing’s heritage and culture. ‘Hello, POSCO’ once again give Longjing City a big round of applause and we look forward to seeing more fruitful achievements of the city’s partnership with POSCO China.