Korea’s leading steelmaker, POSCO, has developed a new building technology that can stack up three floors at once. The company announced on Aug. 7 that its “POSCO Box (P-Box) pillar and ferroconcrete beam bonding” technology has been designated as a new construction technology by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport.

Unlike the previous method of stacking up reinforced concrete by each floor, the 15-meter high P-Box steel pipe column filled with concrete allows builders to pile up three floors at a time, which significantly reduces construction period.

POSCO also announced on Aug. 13 that its cryogenic high-manganese steel has been approved by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy for use as a material for land LNG storage tanks. POSCO has developed the new technology together with builders.

P-Box pillar and ledger beam bonding technology – developed by Posco, Posco Engineering & Construction, Halla Corporation, Hanyang, Hoban Construction, and planning and engineering company P&Coms – is a method that connects horizontal reinforced concrete to P-Box steel pipe column filled with concrete.

A POSCO official said, “The new technology connects a horizontal reinforced concrete beam to P-Box steel pipe column filled with concrete.

It can save construction costs by 10 to 15 percent and reduces carbon emissions by more than 1.5 percent.”

The P-Box bonding method that has been designated as new construction technology, meanwhile, will have 8 years of term of protection period.

During this period, the land ministry will advise ordering organizations to place priority in applying the new technology and provide merits or additional points to builders upon contractor qualification evaluation.

High performance steel for architecture 600 (HSA600) – a construction-use hot-rolled steel applied to P-Box – is one of POSCO’s top international premium products that guarantees tensile strength of 600 megapascals (MPa), which minimizes deformation upon bending and welding.

Posco is currently the only steelmaker that is capable of producing hot-rolled steel with tensile strength of over 600 MPa equipped with seismic performance.

POSCO’s steel solution research institute that developed HSA600 said that it was able to successfully mass produce the technology material in a year after launching technology research based on its materials and technical skills.

The P-Box bonding method was developed three years after that, providing solutions to the construction industry.

The technology has already been applied to more than 11 buildings, including an attached parking lot at Shilla Seoul hotel in Jung District, central Seoul, city development business district and facility in Munjeong-dong, Songpa District, and new apartment complex in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province.

POSCO, meanwhile, has developed two construction- and engineering-related technologies so far with five construction and three engineering firms, which all have been designated as new construction technologies.

 Meanwhile, POSCO shows a high profitability compared to other global steel producers amid a prolonged global steel market slowdown.

POSCO announced on Aug. 13 that its cryogenic high-manganese steel has been approved by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy for use as a material for land LNG storage tanks.

POSCO has developed the high-manganese steel for the first time in the world. The new product can exhibit an excellent performance in a cryogenic environment of minus 196 degrees Celsius.

It also excels current nickel alloy steel in terms of price competitiveness. POSCO expects high manganese steel to gradually replace nickel alloy steel in the LNG tank market.

POSCO began research on high manganese steel in 2008 and completed the development of mass-production technology in 2013.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Korea Gas Safety Corp. provided technical consulting to POSCO to list POSCO’s high manganese steel technology as a manufacturing standard.

POSCO forecasts that 890 LNG tankers and 4,700 LNG carriers will be ordered from 2019 to 2030 in the world.

Accordingly, the company plans to expand the listing of its high manganese steel technology as material and manufacturing standards overseas and actively land orders for LNG-related projects.