A slew of dignitaries led by Minister Kim Hyun-mee of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Gov. Lee Jae-myung of Gyeonggi Province and a group of legislators led by Reps. Park Soon-ja, Cho Jung-shik, Paik Jae-hyun, Kim Cheol-min and Jeon Hae-cheol to name just a few, push buttons at a ceremony held at Ansan City Hall to launch the construction of double line of Shinansan Rail Line on Setp. 9. Also attending included Mayors Yoon Hwa-seob of Ansan City, Lim Byung-taek of Siheung City, and Park Seung-won of Gwangmeong City, among others. (Photo: MOLIT)

Minister Kim Hyun-mee of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Energy said the Shinansan Rail Line will greatly enhance the convenience of railroad transportation in the southwestern region of Gyeonggi Province when it is completed in 2023 as planned.

She was one of the dignitaries who gathered at the Ansan City municipal administration building for a ceremony to launch the construction of the Shinansan Railroad Line, joining Gov. Lee Jae-myung of Gyeonggi Province, and President Lee Young-hoon of POSCO Engineering and Construction Co., among others.

The double-track railroad to be built at the cost of 3.346,5 trillion won, will link Ansan, Siheung and Gwangmeong with Yeouido, Seoul. It will have 15 stations along its 44.7 km-long track when completed in 2023.

The project is part of the Five-Year Plan that the government set up in 1998 to take care of transportation problems in the southeastern regions in Gyeonggi Province, but delayed until now due to a number of issues with design and research studies on the railroad line, among others, that held up the project.

The rail project got a shot in the arm when it was transferred to a civilian project in 2015, when POSCO E&C signed on as the builder of the project in December 2018, as part of the Next Train Consortium.

The Shinansan Line is expected to cut the travel time from Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, to Yeouido, Seoul, to just 25 minutes from the 100 minutes it takes now, greatly relieving the transportation conditions for residents in the southwestern regions.

POSCO E&C officials said the project is in line with the company’s management philosophy, “a corporate citizen that seeks development with regional societies.”

POSCO E&C decided to continue to take up civilian projects that will benefit the people and contribute to corporate operations, large construction projects that fit with the corporate vision that aims to develop prosperity with the people.

South Korea’s leading steelmaker, POSCO, has developed a new building technology that can stack up three floors at one go. 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 reinforced concrete floor-by-floor, the 15-meter high P-Box steel pipe column filled with concrete allows builders to pile up to three floors at a time, which significantly reduces construction period.

POSCO has developed the new technology together with builders.

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

The group had a consolidated operating margin of 6.5 percent in the second quarter, which is higher than 4.1 percent for ArcelorMittal, the largest steel producer in the European Union, and 1.6 percent of Nippon Steel.

Baoshan Iron and Steel, the largest steelmaker in China, has not announced its second-quarter earnings yet, but it is expected to see a lower profitability than 5.6 percent in the first quarter.

The operating margin of POSCO’s steel business, excluding its affiliates in other sectors, stood at 9.7 percent.