POSCO is laying the foundation for entering the industrial gas market by expanding the oxygen and nitrogen storage tanks currently in operation at its steel mill.

On the 27th, POSCO held a 'groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of oxygen and nitrogen storage tanks' at the oxygen plant of Pohang Iron and Steel Works, attended by Yoon Deok-il, head of the Management Planning Division, Lee Baek-hee, head of Pohang Iron and Steel Works, and Jeong Seok-mo, head of the Industrial Gas Business Promotion Team.

Yoon Deok-il, head of the Management Planning Division, said, “Based on POSCO’s largest domestic oxygen and nitrogen production and storage facilities, we expect to not only stabilize the supply of industrial gases for domestic semiconductor and shipbuilding industries, but also contribute to revitalizing the local economy.”

POSCO currently has oxygen and nitrogen storage tanks with a capacity of 49,000 tons at the Pohang Steelworks and 36,000 tons at the Gwangyang Steelworks. It produces and uses oxygen and nitrogen in-house for combustion of iron ore and coal and removal of carbon impurities during the steelmaking process, and stores the remainder and supplies it externally.

oxygen Nitrogen is one of the essential industrial gases used in various industries such as steel, semiconductors, shipbuilding, chemicals, and automobiles, and the domestic distribution market size, excluding direct transactions between large corporations, amounts to approximately 4.5 million tons per year.

Recently, as demand continues to increase due to the boom in Korea's semiconductor and shipbuilding industries, securing a stable supply chain has become especially important for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Accordingly, POSCO plans to invest approximately 70 billion won to expand existing oxygen and nitrogen storage tanks and establish a system that can actively respond to external demand while simultaneously allowing internal use.

By the second half of 2023, the storage tanks at Pohang and Gwangyang Steelworks will be expanded to 60,000 tons and 46,000 tons, respectively, so that the two steelworks will have the capacity to store a total of 106,000 tons of oxygen and nitrogen.

Based on this, from 2024, 450,000 tons, equivalent to about 10% of the domestic annual oxygen and nitrogen distribution market demand, will be sold to distributors, thereby fully launching external supply. The daily supply volume is approximately 1,200 tons, equivalent to about 60 transport vehicles (tank lorries), and is expected to contribute to the revitalization of the local economy as well as supply and demand stability for gas distributors and small and medium-sized demanders.

Meanwhile, POSCO is fostering industrial gases as a new growth engine in line with the company’s ESG management through continuous investment.

The plan is to not only expand the supply of oxygen and nitrogen by utilizing existing facilities, but also to promote the domestic production of rare gases such as neon (Ne), xenon (Xe), and krypton (Kr) together with small and medium-sized enterprises, thereby establishing a win-win model for the domestic industrial gas market.