International Steel Mills

Posco Plans Electrical Steel Production for North America

Written by Laura Miller

July 13, 2023

South Korean steelmaker Posco has big plans to increase its global production capacity, including the making of electrical steel in North America, according to local media reports.

newsThe Korea Times reported that Posco is planning to “build additional hyper non-oriented electrical steel factories in Korea and North America to produce 1 million tons of electrical steel worldwide.”

Posco’s “Better World with Green Steel” plan was unveiled on Thursday, July 13, at the company’s headquarters in Pohang, South Korea. Perfecting its low-carbon steel technologies will be a main focus for the steelmaker, according to the Korea Herald.

The company, whose current overseas crude steel production capacity is 5 million metric tons per year, also plans to double that capacity by 2030, with additional production facilities in the works for North America, Indonesia, and India, the Herald said.

Posco currently operates two galvanizing lines in Altamira, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Posco did not immediately respond to SMU’s request for comment.

There is room in the US market for additional production of electrical steels.

Trade groups along the electrical steel value chain recently urged President Biden to help increase domestic production due to rapidly rising demand and limited domestic availability. According to the groups, “Shortages of domestic electrical steel are contributing to significant and persistent supply chain challenges across our industries.”

Cleveland-Cliffs is a domestic producer of both grain-oriented and non-grain oriented electrical steels (GOES and NGO or NOES).

A new non-grain oriented (NGO) electrical steel line is currently being prepped for a third-quarter start-up at U.S. Steel’s Big River Steel plant in Arkansas for the production of its InduX™ NGO steel. That line will have an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons.

By Laura Miller, laura@steelmarketupdate.com

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. She has held a variety of positions within the steel industry since 2007, including reporting and editing for Steel Business Briefing/Platts, the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, and Kallanish Commodities, as well as marketing for what was then known as ThyssenKrupp Steel USA (now AM/NS Calvert). After a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel in 2021 and has covered the flat rolled, tubular, and trade areas of the industry. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.

Read more from Laura Miller

Latest in International Steel Mills