POSCO is investing 100 billion won to build industrial gas production and storage facilities, and will begin supplying oxygen and nitrogen for secondary batteries in earnest. Based on this, we plan to expand into the special gas business for semiconductors in the future.


On the 5th, POSCO broke ground on an industrial gas production facility with an annual production capacity of 250,000 tons in a secondary battery specialized complex in the Yeongil Bay General Industrial Complex in Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk-do.

POSCO will invest approximately KRW 100 billion to build a new oxygen plant on a 5,000-pyeong site, installing an air separation unit (ASU) that separates and purifies oxygen and nitrogen in the air, and a large storage tank that can store 2,000 tons of liquid oxygen.

A large storage tank will be installed first in the second half of 2024, and the ASU facility will be completed by the second half of 2025 to supply high-purity oxygen and nitrogen to be used in the production process of cathode materials, which are key materials for secondary batteries, and precursors, and in the nickel refining process.

POSCO plans to supply industrial gases more stably and economically through long-term supply contracts with POSCO Future M, which operates a cathode material plant in the Pohang Secondary Battery Specialized Complex, and the newly built ASU and large storage tank are expected to enable the annual supply of 100,000 tons of cathode materials, 50,000 tons of pure nickel, and 110,000 tons of precursors.

In particular, the completion of this oxygen plant is expected to contribute to enhancing domestic industrial competitiveness by allowing POSCO to expand its supply in earnest in the domestic industrial gas market, which is currently dominated by foreign and private equity fund-owned companies with a market share of over 90%.

POSCO, which currently has 22 oxygen plants, the largest in Korea, in its Pohang and Gwangyang steel mills, produces approximately 17 million tons of industrial gases annually, using 16 million tons in the steel production process and selling the rest to external parties.

Oxygen and nitrogen in gaseous form are sold to POSCO Future M's Pohang Cheonglim Plant, which is connected to the steel mill by pipelines, and SNNC near Donghoan, Gwangyang, and some of the gas is liquefied and supplied to small and medium-sized charging stations using tank trucks. It is being sold as a gas retailer.

Oxygen and nitrogen are essential utilities in the production processes of various industries such as steel, semiconductors, shipbuilding, chemicals, and automobiles. The domestic gas market size is approximately KRW 2.2 trillion per year, and the liquid gas market size is KRW 500 billion per year. In particular, the semiconductor and secondary battery materials sectors account for approximately 80% of the demand in the gas market, and are expected to continue to grow.

POSCO plans to continuously seek to expand ASU facilities near future demand sources and expand its business by commercializing rare gases essential to the semiconductor industry, such as neon (Ne), krypton (Kr), and xenon (Xe), as well as special gases utilizing steel mill byproducts, in addition to general industrial gases such as oxygen and nitrogen.

Meanwhile, POSCO began a new business utilizing industrial gases produced at its steel mill oxygen plant in 2021, and in January 2023, it established an industrial gas division to expand its industrial gas business and transition to a specialized operating system, thereby fully entering the industrial gas market.