New Chairman Kwon Oh-joon delivers his inauguration speech at a ceremony held at

 POSCO Center in Seoul on March 14 to officially take over the helm of POSCO. (Photo: POSCO)

Chairman Kwon Oh-joon officially has taken over the steelmaker as its top manager from March 14 with the slogan “Rebuilding of the House of Steel,” after the official approval of shareholders and the board of directors meetings held at the POSCO Center in Seoul for his appointment as chairman of POSCO succeeding outgoing chairman Chung Joon-yang.

The new chairman will run the giant steelmaker, ranked 6th in the country in terms of assets, until 2017 when his three-year term expires.

Kwon said POSCO could be at risk of losing its competitive position that it maintained for years due to a glut in the production of steel around the world and the company has to focus on segregated technologies while reforming its financial structure to recover its top-level competitive position in the world.

“POSCO the Great” is the new slogan the chairman proclaimed as his term as top manager of the steel company begins in order for the company to go full blast in pushing his management policies designed to completely reform its management under the Reform POSCO 1.0 plan.

“POSCO the Great” means that the steel giant will make further contributions to the development of the national economy and continue to provide new values to win respect in the world, POSCO officials said.

The chairman will see that the steelmaker strengthens its basic operational structure, foster its future growth engines through selection and concentration, make its operational structure effective, and reform the financial structure and its management infrastructure, in what turned out to be four major reform tasks for the steel maker.

Kwon also said any non-steelmaking operations will be taken care of by either being dropped or saved. He said any new investment for growth will be suspended while the appropriateness of the operation is studied, and those that are considered to have a poor chance for survival in consideration of the market conditions and global competitive power will either cease to operate or be sold off in a daring and speedy manner.

He, however, said such future growth engines as lithium, nickel, and other core materials and fuel batteries, clean coal chemical, and other clean energy businesses will be nurtured to ensure their continued growth during the tenure of his office which ends in 2017.

At his inaugural ceremony held at the POSCO Steel Complex in Pohang, he said POSCO should contribute to the national development and be loved by the people with its creative, harmonious, and first-rate management. He went on to say that POSCO has been thrown into a crisis with no clear sign for its survival if left untouched now with its credit rating falling and share prices finding it hard to rebound.

POSCO continued to keep its strategies for growth when the Super Cycle following the global financial crisis had come to an end, one of the reasons why the steelmaker is in trouble. He urged everyone with the company to shake off the false pride and fantasy that they are first-class and to stand at the starting line again.

Kwon said his plan is not only for breaking out of the crisis to ensure that POSCO is still operating 50 years from now.

An official said the new chairman would be a leader that would be able to bring technology reform at POSCO to fight the prolonged downturn in the steel industry and that every member of the POSCO family should unite behind the new CEO in order to overcome the tough times.

A Pohang City official said the entire city hopes that the new chairman could bring further growth to the steelmaker so that it will lead the development of the city as it has done so far.