Korea Times reported that China is devouring resources from Africa to Australia so it is a matter of unparalleled priority for Korea to secure its own share to keep its industrial machine going.
Already, the government has prioritized such efforts, calling it natural resources diplomacy. Leading the way are POSCO, the Korea National Oil Corp, SK Group and other leading conglomerates.
Steel giant POSCO has aggressively expanded its business portfolio in the materials and eco friendly sectors in a bid to seek new growth engines, and transform itself into a comprehensive materials corporation. POSCO and its affiliates have worked with institutions from industry, academy and research institutes including the Research Institute of Industrial Source and Technology to pursue open innovation, a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ones.
POSCO is also focusing on the production and supply of high powered, ultra light basic and innovative materials, which are believed to be a catalyst for green growth.
Mr Chung Joon yang chairman of POSCO said that "POSCO has contributed to the nation’s industrial development with impressive achievements. From now on, POSCO will try to take off in new materials fields."
POSCO, which has been promoting its magnesium business since 2002, was selected as the supervising institution for the Ultra lightweight Magnesium Material for Transport Planes business, one of the 10 plans belonging to the World Premier Material project of August 2009. The WPM plan is government-run with funds totaling KRW 1 trillion and it aims on fostering the world’s leading materials industry to commercialize and create new materials.
POSCO completed building a magnesium sheet plant in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, in July 2007 in its bid to tap demand for a metal increasingly used in mobile phones, computers and cameras. The facility that it invested 22.5 billion won in can produce 3,000 tonnes of magnesium sheets annually.
POSCO’s signed a memorandum of understanding with Gangwon Province on the magnesium refinery business in December 2009.
According to the deal, POSCO will build a magnesium refinery plant with an annual production capacity of 10,000 tons in Gangneung, while the province promises to give all the necessary financial and administrative support, including land and road construction. POSCO will also try with the government to commercialize technologies to extract lithium from sea water.
The firm signed an agreement for the joint project in February last year with the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs and the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources. POSCO and the ministry will invest KRW 15 billion and KRW 30 billion, respectively, until 2014.
POSCO expects to produce 20,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate in the facility. Korea’s annual demand for the mineral is tallied at some 5,000 tonnes but the country depends on imports for the complete amount. In April 2010, POSCO and Kazakhstan’s UKTMP reached an agreement for a joint venture to produce titanium slabs.
The deal says that each side will invest 50% to build an industrial pure titanium slab plant in Ust Kamenogorsk, in the eastern part of Kazakhstan, with construction starting in the latter half of this year for completion in 2012. POSCO set up POS HiMetal to tap into ferromanganese manufacturing in September 2009.
(Sourced from www.koreatimes.co.kr)
