POSCO has been recognized as the leading company among the world’s top steelmakers for the past eight consecutive years. To note, POSCO received this year’s honor in the midst of difficult domestic and overseas market conditions due to last year’s global oversupply, tighter import regulations triggered by the spread of protectionism and internal financial restructuring.

The Steel Survival Strategies held discussions on current trends and future strategies of the global steel industry before the WSD announced the honor. Thirty-seven steel companies around the world were evaluated on 23 different criteria such as production scale, profitability, technological innovation, price competitiveness, cost reduction, financial soundness and raw material acquisition.  

POSCO has topped the list a total of 13 times since 2002, when WSD first began its global competitiveness rankings, putting POSCO at the top of the rankings for the longest period of time.

POSCO came out on top with a perfect 10 in five categories: technological innovation, cost reduction, labor skills, restructuring and investment environment, putting the overall score at 8.31 points. The total was 0.26 points higher than last year, due to positive evaluations of POSCO’s solutions marketing activities, the expansion of high-value-added products as well as its financial restructuring.

Other notable companies on the list include Russian steelmaker Severstal (second place) for iron ore and coal mines, US steelmaker Nucor (third place) for their technological innovation and profitability, NLMK steelmaker (fourth place) for their iron ore, and NSSMC (fifth place) with positive evaluations in business diversification and restructuring.

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

Global steel information service provider World Steel Dynamics (WSD) announced the World-Class Steelmaker Rankings on June 13 in New York. POSCO has topped the list as the world’s best steelmaker for the seventh consecutive year.

This year’s achievement is especially meaningful, as the company faced a tough business environment in 2015 due to global oversupply, a downturn of major demand industries and import restrictions on exporting countries. POSCO also underwent a strict restructuring process to improve its financial structure.

The WSD assessed 37 steelmakers around the world in 23 categories including technological innovation, cost competitiveness, financial stability and procurement.

POSCO ranked at the top with a score of 8.02. The company was credited for its investment attraction of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and the reorganization of its corporate structure, including its sale of POSCO Specialty Steel.

POSCO was also applauded for making use of innovative technologies such as FINEX and CEM, improving the technical skills and productivity of its engineers, increasing sales of value-added high-end products such as World Premium products and reducing costs.

Japanese Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp ranked second, having improved export competitiveness thanks to a weak yen. US-based steelmakers Nucor and SDI ranked third and fourth, respectively, having improved competitiveness in energy costs through the use of shale gas.

Russian steelmaker NLMK, who boasts iron ore and coal mines, came in fifth while Severstal, another Russian company, ranked sixth. Hyundai Steel placed twelfth this year.

Be sure you never miss any of the exciting steel stories from The Steel Wire by subscribing to our blog.

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 has many modifiers that follow us, one of it being given by WSD. On February 1st, POSCO has been named “The World’s Most Competitive Steelmaker” by the World Steel Dynamics(WSD), which is a strategic information service providing critical and new perspectives on possible and probable steel industry developments, for 4 years in a row.

Thirty-four steel industries, including POSCO, were judged on basis of their production scale, profitability, innovative technology, reduction of production cost, financial soundness, ability to secure raw materials and 23 additional measures.

POSCO impressed the world with our high level of workmanship, production capacity. Products like Finex, POIST, CEM proved the cutting-edge, leading innovative technology we’ve created and pursued, which also helped increase the competitiveness of raw materials. On sections like profitability, reduction of production costs and expansion into new markets, POSCO scored 7.76 points out of 10, as to be one of the top ranked companies.

[box]

FINEX: POSCO’s own eco-friendly iron making technology that allows the direct use of cheap iron ore fines and non-coking coal as feedback. Having significantly lower operating costs and emissions, Finex dramatically reduces overall construction costs.

POIST: POSCO’s Innovation Steel Technology is POSCO’s own leading-edge refining technology of molten metal for protection of profitability and environment simultaneously.

CEM: Compact Endless Casting and Rolling Mill that have compacted steelmaking, steel performance, and rolling process.

[/box]

What’s interesting about this year’s results is that the entire steel industry experienced a down-turn over the years, yet POSCO managed to receive an even better score of 7.48 points that we did the previous years. The gap between POSCO and companies who scored below 7.3 became huge as well.

Following POSCO as 1st place are, Russia’s NLMK placed 2nd, Severstal 3rd and India’s JSW Steel as the 4th place. Companies who were named “The World’s Most Competitive Steelmaker” all possessed self-functioning/ owned steel mines, enabling the competitive supply of base materials. In addition, with the technologies such as solar synergy and enzer, Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal became 5th place. Arcelormittal, though it was 1st place in steel production level, scored as 22nd place.

As evident as it is by now, POSCO is currently the 1st place in “The World’s Most Competitive Steelmaker,” for 4 years in a row today. But actually, we have achieved this title during 2002 to 2004 also. We rented the place to other large corporations briefly, namely to Severstal and Tata Steel. Nonetheless, POSCO was able to take the title back since 2010 due to our continuous efforts in reducing production costs, improving profitability, increasing technological researches, and pioneering for new markets. We hope to continue this happy trail and work harder to further develop our skills for the betterment of not just POSCO but the world that we coexist.

< WSD’s World-Class  Steelmaker Rankings as of January 2013>