POSCO Chairman Kwon Oh-joon

POSCO was selected as the top competitive steel maker in the world in the World-Class Steelmaker Rankings at the 29th Steel Success Strategies hosted by World Steel Dynamics (WSD), a world steel industry analysis organization, on June 17 in New York. The steelmaker won the honor seven times total and for five consecutive years, POSCO said.

POSCO came on top in four critical areas of the steel industry including technology reform and manpower resources, garnering 7.9 points out of 10, taking the top position. The Korean steel giant got 0.36 points more than the second ranked steelmaker, which is considered very high.

WSD analyzed 36 steelmakers around the world on their performances based in such critical areas as scale of production, profitability, technology reform, the power to determine steel prices, cost reduction, financial health, securing raw materials, and others in a total of 23 areas.

POSCO received excellent points in such key operational areas as marketing high value-added products to secure its growth and solution marketing based on its technological base and others aimed at strengthening its competitive power.

The steelmaker also got high marks in technology reform, the production of high value-added products, and other areas, higher than the marks received a year ago, which showed that the company has been successful in boosting its competitive power in general.

Nucor, a representative electric furnace steelmaker in the U.S. came away with second place, as the steelmaker benefitted from the economic recoveries in advanced nations. Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp. came in third and JFE in eighth, as their international operations improved because of “Abenomics” policies. Hyundai Steel and Erdemir, a Turkish steelmaker, made the list of top 10 steelmakers for the first time this year, replacing Sail and Jindal, the two steelmakers based in India, which dropped off the list.

The Korean steelmaker plans to hang on to its top ranking position in the global steel industry for years to come by further strengthening its competitive edge over its rivals.