Chairman Chang stated, “We must not be trapped by past successes, but maintain a sense of urgency,” and emphasized, “Technology is the key to opening the future of a world-class company.”

Safety was highlighted as a prerequisite for all business operations, with executives urged to take responsibility and fundamentally eliminate risks.

At the 2025 POSCO Forum, In-hwa Chang, Chairman of POSCO Group, joined group executives and renowned global scholars to directly confront the challenges facing the group and seek solutions for sustainable growth amid a period of technological transformation.

Now in its seventh year, the POSCO Forum brought together all group executives to assess the internal and external business environment and discuss strategies for growth and innovation. This year’s forum, held at the POSCO Songdo Global R&D Center from September 22 for two days, was themed “The Era of Great Transformation: What Shapes the Future?”

Chairman Chang remarked, “We must not be confined by previous methods of success, but maintain a sense of urgency so that technology can become the key to POSCO Group’s future as a world-class company. We will stay ahead of the curve, read the future, and lead industrial change to achieve sustainable growth.”

Regarding safety, he stressed, “We will humbly accept the results of safety inspections and fundamentally eliminate risks so that all group members can create results creatively in a safe workplace. We will fulfill our responsibility to establish and spread K-Safety best practices in domestic manufacturing and construction sites.”

In the keynote speech, Andrew McAfee, Professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, reviewed the evolution of society, economy, and industry driven by technological revolutions, and proposed growth strategies for companies navigating the transitional period of innovations such as AI, robotics, and quantum mechanics.

The following sessions, organized around three megatrends—New Mobility, AI Transformation, and Energy—provided insights for preparing for the future from a broader and long-term perspective through expert lectures, discussions, technology demonstrations, and dialogues.

The ‘New Mobility’ session introduced cases and implications of mobility innovation evolving into software, services, and aviation. The ‘AI Transformation’ session included demonstrations of robotics technology and analyzed changing manufacturing trends driven by advances in AI and robotics. The ‘Energy’ session addressed the shift from traditional fossil fuels to emerging electrification-centered systems, covering response cases and future strategies of major companies and countries.

Since his inauguration, In-hwa Chang has declared the management vision of “Materials for Tomorrow, Innovation for Excellence,” focusing on the importance of technology as one of the strategic directions for executing seven major future innovation tasks, including rebuilding the steel business and securing competitiveness in battery materials, and leading future technology-based super-gap businesses.

POSCO Group aims to strengthen its technology innovation system by encouraging technological development that drives sustainable growth through the POSCO Forum, the Group Technology Strategy Meeting chaired by the Chairman, and the POSCO Group Tech Forum, while reinforcing the link between technology and business strategy to secure world-class competitiveness and create new future businesses.

▲ In-hwa Chang, Chairman of POSCO Group, speaks with Andrew McAfee, Professor at MIT Sloan School of Management and keynote speaker, at the 2025 POSCO Forum held at POSCO Songdo Global R&D Center on September 22.

Jeong-woo Choi, POSCO Group Chairman: “Let’s publicize the Group’s vision for growth with real value stories”… Spare no effort in supporting the strengthening of employee capabilities

POSCO Group will hold the 2023 POSCO Forum to discuss future growth strategies at the Songdo POSCO Global R&D Center for three days beginning on September 12.

POSCO Forum is an event all group executives participate in to diagnose domestic and international conditions and industrial paradigm shifts and discuss solutions for the Group’s sustainable growth with experts from various fields. This year, they will discuss measures to realize *Real value and the Group’s growth direction for each of the *seven core businesses with the theme “Real Value Management,Creating Value for a Better World.”

* Real value: The sum of all tangible and intangible values a company creates through business, encompassing the economic, environmental and social values it provides to members of society
* Seven core businesses: steel, hydrogen, rechargeable battery materials, lithium/nickel, energy, construction/Infrastructure, and food(Agri-Bio)

The POSCO Forum, now in its fifth year, will be held simultaneously online and offline. About 120 key executives of the Group, including POSCO Group Chairman Jeong-woo Choi, key executives of the Group, non-executive directors, and corporate citizenship advisors attended the forum, and executives and employees who did not attend watched it on a live broadcast to broaden the consensus on the Group’s growth direction and real value.

Chairman Choi said, “We should further develop the real value story shared in the forum to use as an effective tool to promote the Group’s growth vision. Executives should take the lead and spare no support to foster the employees’ capabilities and create an organizational culture where employees can freely demonstrate their creativity.”

The forum will begin with a keynote speech by Raj Ratnakar, VP of strategy at Dupont, who will share insights on business transformation for sustainable growth and increasing corporate value, and subsequent sessions will discuss the inflection points of core businesses and new growth strategies as the industrial structure evolves.

From the afternoon of the first day to the second day, the Group’s management will present real value stories for each of POSCO Group’s seven core businesses and outside panelists will give lectures and in-depth discussions will be held on implementing real value and future strategic directions.

The session on steel will look into the needs and paradigm shift of the steel industry, such as changes in steel making and technology development direction to achieve carbon neutrality and the reality of the transition to eco-friendly steelmaking, and the session on hydrogen will include lectures and discussions on the direction of the hydrogen industry and the economic efficiency of hydrogen production technology.

Moreover, the session on rechargeable battery materials and lithium/nickel will discuss changes in the competitive composition of the global battery market and the main content and implication of the EU‘s Critical Raw Material Act (CRMA), and the session on energy will discuss the future of the LNG industry and offshore power development strategies.

The session on construction will analyze strategies for the future new businesses of construction companies, and the session on food will seek measures for new value creation in the food business.

On the last day of the forum, BASF President of Carbon Neutrality Lars Kissau will give a lecture on cases of systematic business portfolio transition and presentations and discussions will be held on the importance of organizational culture, which is the core of real value.

POSCO Group established the structural foundation for real value management when it transitioned into a holding company in March last year and has dramatically increased the Group’s total market capitalization three times from KRW 35.2 trillion on July 27, 2018, to KRW 105 trillion as of September 11 this year with real value management.

Moreover, it unveiled a new brand slogan, “Creating Value for a Better World, Green Tomorrow, With POSCO” last month, emphasizing the direction for the sustainable future of POSCO Group and the Group’s unique commitment to real value management. POSCO Group plans to further strengthen real value management by reflecting the real value stories presented in this forum in its mid- to long-term strategy.

▲ POSCO Group Chairman Jeong-woo Choi talks with Dupont VP of Strategy Raj Ratnakar at the 2023 POSCO Forum.

POSCO hosted the 2017 Global EV Materials Forum at the Songdo Global R&D Center in Incheon.

POSCO welcomed more than 380 local and overseas customers to the forum where they announced the current status of POSCO Group’s EV projects and strategies. The company also showcased its core EV technologies for high-value-added products such as motors, batteries and lightweight chassis/bodies.

During the forum, POSCO highlighted customer needs, market trends and development statuses in three areas: lightweight materials, traction motor cores and batteries. POSCO researchers also gave presentations on POSCO’s high-value-added products and solutions to share market insights and technological developments with the participants.

Participants listen to presentations at the 2017 Global EV Materials Forum.

In his keynote speech, In-hwan Oh, president of POSCO, said, “POSCO is in full preparation for the future of an electric vehicle ecosystem, to become a reliable partner to our customers.”

There were also external speakers at the forum, including Stephen Zoepf, Executive Director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford University, who spoke about “Electric Vehicles: Adapting to a Changing Marketplace.” Another external speaker was Martin Woehrle, senior director of BMW Korea, who gave a presentation on the trends in EV development.

In addition, POSCO held a separate exhibition at the venue consisting of four key product zones: motors, batteries, light-weight chassis/bodies and charging infrastructure. There was also an EV model on display in the Highlight Zone for a better understanding of the structure of EVs.

Visitors examine the electric Nissan Leaf

On display In the lightweight chassis/bodies exhibition zone was POSCO GIGA STEEL for lightweight chassis/bodies, which is lighter but much stronger than existing automotive steel sheets. Also on display was POSCO’s lithium materials for EV batteries; POSCO is the first company in Korea to commercially produce lithium for EV batteries.

In the motor zone was POSCO Daewoo’s a high-efficiency traction motor core for EVs made with POSCO’s Hyper NO, its highest-grade, non-oriented electrical steel. POSCO is already supplying it to major automakers.

The charging infrastructure zone showed POSCO ESM and POSCO Chemtech’s core materials of EV batteries, such as cathode and anode materials. In addition, POSCO ICT is the only company in Korea to provide a total-service electric vehicle charging infrastructure, including supply, installation and operation to membership management and supplementary services.

To close, POSCO pledged to become a “Total Solution Provider” for its partners in the auto industry bracing for the age of electric vehicles with its innovative technology, premium products and customized services.

Don’t miss any of the exciting stories from The Steel Wire – subscribe via email today.

As many as 700 people attended the forum including POSCO Group affiliate employees, as well as those of POSCO’s major suppliers, outsourcing partners and AI-related professors. Notably, employees from Nastech and Korinox, where POSCO is carrying out smart factory support projects, participated as well.

POSCO CEO Ohjoon Kwon watching a presentation at the forum

“POSCO must continue to take up the challenge of implementing a smart POSCO in preparation for the dawning of the 4th Industrial Revolution. We will apply smart technologies to all processes of the steel mills, as well as to management areas such as finance, HR and purchasing to realize the concept of smart management,” stated POSCO CEO Ohjoon Kwon. “We will actively share the results of POSCO’s smartization process with our group affiliates and customers.”

Mi-hwa Park, head of the POSCO Information Planning Department added, “To realize a smart POSCO, we started the Smart Solution Council headed by our CEO last year, and identified 141 smart projects which applied Big Data and AI to solve practical problems. Approximately 600 employees participated in the projects and reduced costs by KRW 15.7 billion.” She added, “We will develop a POSCO-style SME smart factory model to support innovations for the manufacturing sites of our SME customers and suppliers. Furthermore, we will contribute to fostering SMEs and creating jobs by providing a lighter version of the PosFrame, developed by POSCO, as a customized smart platform for SMEs.”

POSCO CEO Ohjoon Kwon with the excellence award recipients

POSCO also recognized projects that applied Big Data and AI, for excellence in the steel production category. Out of the four, one improved the flatness of steel sheets and another provided improved technology for slab production. The “3D-based design/construction quality improvement” project that uses POSCO E&C’s Virtual Construction to predict risks, and the “power generation output through condenser performance diagnostics” project that can accurately detect errors in POSCO Energy’s power plants were also among those selected.

Forum participants were given an opportunity to experience POSCO’s smart solution platform PosFrame firsthand. PosFrame combines operational insights and IT technology to collect Big Data as well as process and monitor data in a way that allows participants to experience the reality of “Smart POSCO.” It was one of the most popular features of the forum among participants.

POSCO CEO Ohjoon Kwon looking at a PosFrame platform

POSCO also announced its plan to standardize the technologies and processes developed through smart projects, turn them into a technical package and actively incorporate them into its “Smart Solution” business to create added value.

Ki-won Na, CEO of Shinheung Automotive Co., Ltd., an automotive parts maker, said, “We received a lot of ideas applicable to our operations from the case studies presented today, and if we learn about POSCO’s Big Data analysis and utilization techniques in more detail and apply them, I expect it will greatly contribute to improving our productivity.”

POSCO joined hands with POSTECH to launch an advanced AI course earlier this year and is currently training 25 internal AI experts so that they can apply their AI knowledge in their field to solve problems and thus lead the way for a smart POSCO.

Also, POSCO has begun providing free AI education to young, underprivileged jobseekers in July and is now training 100 youths per year on both theoretical and practical knowledge. POSCO is also planning to support the customized SME smart talent development project, including practical education on AI and Big Data skills, for its customers and suppliers.

POSCO is actively planning to complete its smartization, meaning it will apply its “Smart Factory” to all processes of the steel mills, and carry out its “Smart Solution” business, which combines POSCO’s product technologies and services with smart technologies.

Don’t miss any of the exciting stories from The Steel Wire – subscribe via email today.