The announcement distinguished POSCO as the world’s top steelmaker for the eighth consecutive time in six years. 

The WSD evaluated 36 steelmakers from all corners of the globe in 23 categories including production capacity, profitability, technological innovation, cost competitiveness, cost savings, financial stability, and procurement, as of June 2015.

As a result of focusing on the enhancement of core corporate competitiveness by growing the sales of high value-added premium products and solution marketing founded on technology, POSCO acquired an average of 7.91 points, with a maximum score of 10 points in technological innovation, putting the Korean steelmaker at the No.1 spot. 

According to the WSD’s rankings, following POSCO was the second-ranking American mini-mill steelmaker Nucor Corp., having reaped the benefits of the shale gas developments that coincide with the recent recovery of the steel market in industrialized nations. Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal of Japan ranked third, demonstrating rising sales related to increased export competitiveness under the Abenomics policies. Brazil’s Gerdau came in fourth, followed by Severstal of Russia. Hyundai Steel of Korea ranked ninth for the second consecutive year. 

During the Steel Success Strategies forum, which was held under the theme “Just the Beginning,” it was forecasted by the WSD that the global steel industry would continue at its current slow pace for some time after assessing the short-term market conditions from 2015 to 2017. On the bright side, the organization noted that the global steel industry should recover some momentum and see improvements in the raw materials market from 2017. This, of course, is uplifting news as POSCO continues to move forward.

Top 10 Rankings of World-Class Competitive Steelmakers 

1 POSCO (Korea) 7.91 
2 Nucor (U.S.A.) 7.55 
3 Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal (Japan) 7.49 
4 Gerdau (Brazil) 7.34 
5 Severstal (Russia) 7.31 
6 JSW Steel (India) 7.20 
7 NLMK (Russia) 7.14 
8 JFE(Japan) 7.104
9 Hyundai 7.05
10 Erdemir 7.03

POSCO named most competitive in Global steel information provider WSD’s assessment of 36 steelmakers around the world

POSCO has been named the world’s most competitive steelmaker for the 7th consecutive time during the past five years.

Global steel information service provider World Steel Dynamics (WSD) announced the World-Class Steelmaker Rankings during the 29^th Steel Success Strategies (SSS) forum on Tuesday, June 17 New York Time.

POSCO earned high points in technological innovation and human resource management

WSD gave the top mark of 7.91 points out of 10 to POSCO. It said POSCO received highest points in four segments, including technological innovation and human resource management.

As of June 2014, WSD made an assessment of 36 steelmakers around the world in 23 categories including production size, profitability, technological innovation, cost competitiveness, cost saving, financial stability, and procurement.

WSD gave credit for POSCO’s improvement on its core steel competitiveness

WSD also gave credit for POSCO’s effort to bolster stable growth and improve core corporate competitiveness by increasing sales of value-added high-end products and engaging in technology-based solution marketing. The company got higher points compared to the previous year on technological innovation, value-added rolled steel production and doing more to bolster downstream steel-related industries.

Following second was American mini-mill steelmaker Nucor Corp. which has enjoyed shale gas development privileges along with a recent recovery in the steel industry among developed nations. Japanese steelmakers NSSMC and JFE followed third and eighth with sales rising due to increased export competitiveness under Abenomics.

Meanwhile SAIL and Jindal, Indian companies that were among the top 10 last year, failed to remain in the list this year. Instead, Hyundai Steel, which secured 24 million tons for production, ranked ninth to join the top 10.

Peter Marcus said in his lecture, “POSCO was able to succeed as a global steelmaker because it has its own unique corporate culture,” emphasizing the importance of continuously developing POSCO’s unique and great corporate culture.

In addition, he mentioned the importance of continuous R&D investment activities to maintain competitiveness, explaining, “5 companies globally, POSCO, NSSMC (Nippon Steel & Sumimoto Metal Corp), JFE, CSC (China Steel), and Baoshan Iron & Steel, are showing competitive R&D activities.”

He also pointed out that the steel industry today is facing an extremely difficult environment, forecasting that the growth engine from China will be exhausted while the remaining power for new growth of BRICs will not be sufficient, thus the downcycle of the steel industry will continue until around 2018.

In the long term, scrap production supply from China will increase rapidly while DRI (Direct Reduced Iron) competitiveness will recover due to shale gas, leading to distinct competition between iron sources forecasting a decline in material costs such as iron ores, DRI, and HBI (Hot Briquetted Iron).

In the mid- to long-term, increases in steel demand will be prominent in the Middle East regions rather than China, where steel production will increase 1.5% annually from 1,574 million tons in 2013 to 1,873 million tons by 2025.

Lastly, Marcus forecast that there is a high chance that the increase rate of steel demand in China will stagnate at less than 1% until 2025, and that the increase rate of annual steel production will reach 7.9% until 2014 but only 0.59% for the ten years after 2015.

Marcus explained that this is based on the decrease of GDP growth rate, decline in demand due to the depreciating construction economy, and weakened export competitiveness due to a strong Chinese yuan value.