Vice Chairman Woo Yoo-cheol of Hyundai Steel Co.

Hyundai Steel captured the $5 Billion Export Tower Medal at the 52nd Trade Day ceremony on Nov. 7, in recognition of the steel maker’s achievement to ship $5 billion worth of steel products, mostly steel plates used in autos, as a result of the steel maker’s efforts to upgrade the quality of its product.

Hyundai Steel became the first private steel maker to have blast furnaces in Korea in 2010 and has now grown to have 25 overseas subsidiaries and branches in addition to its steel plants in Korea, employing 12,000 people.

Hyundai Steel has focused on the production of steel plates for cars since the installation of the blast furnaces to bring its annual total steel production to 24 million tons, including 12 million tons from its three blast furnaces. 

In 2013, the steel maker took over Hyundai Hysco, a producer of cold-rolled steel plates, to build a one-stop production system from raw materials to complete products. The steel maker uses scrap iron as raw material to produce steel products at the electric furnaces to the tune of 12 million tons annually. It began its operation in 1953 and it opened a new age for the steel industry in Korea by adding three blast furnaces at its steel complex in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province in 2010.

With the merger, Hyundai Steel has been able to focus on SSC operation overseas, the work to lighten cars and steel pipe production to become a top global producer of steel products needed by the auto industry. 

The company invested 129.5 billion won in its 2nd cold-rolled steel plant to prepare for increased demand for steel products in the auto industry, including ultra-high tensile steel and light steel plates used in autos.

From the second half of 2010, when the world economy had been experiencing a severe downturn, the steel maker drove hard to export its steel products overseas, including such key steel products as H beams, steel rods and hot-rolled steel plates, to a number of key regions including Southeast Asia (45 percent), the Middle East (20 percent) and North America (17 percent), in addition to exploring new steel markets. 

Last year, the steel maker exported $10.46 million worth of steel products to North America, $5.36 million to Europe and Africa, $7.11 million to Southwest Asia, $7.53 million to Southeast Asia and $10.19 million to Northeast Asia. By steel products, exports of steel rods amounted to $10.81 million, cold-rolled steel plates $17.42 million, hot-rolled steel plates $8.61 million and others $2.28 million.

The steel maker exported $1 billion worth of steel products in 2005, $1.9 billion in 2007 and $2 billion in 2010, although export conditions grew bleak that year. In 2013 and 2014 its exports amounted to $3 billion and $4 billion, respectively.

Hyundai Steel has a policy to grow in tandem with its cooperative firms, totaling over 70 originally. That increased to 87 in 2013 and 93 in 2014, and has been working on improving the management environment, training on technology and education, financial support, and online manpower hiring to help strengthen the competitive power of its cooperative partner firms. The steel maker has also been operating a 23 billion won corporate social responsibility team to support the partner firms to grow together.

President Park Geun-hye presents the $5 Billion Export Tower Award to Vice Chairman Woo Yoo-cheol of Hyundai Steel at the 52nd Trade Day ceremony held on Dec. 7 at Coex in Seoul.(Photos:Hyundai Steel)