Dongkuk Steel’s decision to focus on premium brand strategies, rather than competing on price with Chinese producers, has paid off.
Dongkuk Steel’s Luxteel, its premium color plate brand, has been successful and profitable for the company over the years.
Luxteel made its debut as the nation’s first color steel plate brand 11 years ago. The word Luxteel comes from a combination of the words luxury and steel.
It represents the production of color steel plates for premium inside and outside construction materials.
Luxteel color plates are made by painting, coating, or attaching films on steel plates.
They are priced at over two times more than normal steel products, and used for producing premium home appliances. They boast diverse colors, and express complex patterns and textures.
Dongkuk Steel Vice Chairman Jang Sae-wook said the release of Luxteel was the outcome of experiences Dongkuk Steel had accumulated for 50 years, and the steelmaker will make it a world-class premium brand.
In a meeting of reporters on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the launch of Luxteel, Vice Chairman Jang said competition was a driving force behind development. He disclosed the new strategy, dubbed “DK Color Vision 2030.”
Under the new strategy, Dongkuk Steel aims to log 2 trillion won in color steel plate sales and build a system capable of producing 1 million tons by 2030. Currently, the steelmaker posted 1.4 trillion won in color steel plate sales with a production capacity of 850,000 tons.
Vice Chairman Jang suggested keywords to achieve the new vision: globalization, sustainable growth and marketing. Dongkuk Steel has three production centers in Mexico, India and Thailand.
The steelmaker plans to expand the number of production centers to seven countries, including the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia and Australia.
Dongkuk Steel Chalks Up 205.8 billion Won in Q1 Operating Profit
Dongkuk Steel posted 2,131.3 billion won in sales, 205.8 billion won in operating profit and 272.6 billion won in net profit in the first quarter of the year on a consolidated basis, the steelmaker said on April 29.
The steelmaker saw sales surge 52.7 percent, operating profit leap 88.1 percent and net profit jump 889.2 percent on a year-on-year basis.
The rises were owed to rising steel product prices, coupled with global raw material hikes.
Provisional figures based on a separate financial statement showed that the steelmaker logged 1,968.6 billion won, a 51.3 percent year-on-year surge, 167.6 billion won in operating profit, a 63.8 percent year-on-year leap, and 122 billion won in net profit, a 102.1 percent year-on-year jump.
Dongkuk Steel plans to continue marketing strategies focusing on profitability in the wake of downstream industry market environment changes in the second quarter.
True to the catchphrase “Steel for Green,” the steelmaker plans to upgrade electric furnaces and build eco-friendly production processes.
As for the color steel plate business, Dongkuk Steel plans to continue export-oriented sales strategies such as investing of a steel service center in Vietnam as part of efforts to go global under the DK Color Vision 2030.
A Dongkuk Steel official said the steelmaker diversified markets with expanding of demand for quake-proof section products and the release of section products on the online marketing platform “SteelShop” and the expanding of plating and color steel plates with high profitability on the global market pushed up year-on-year growth from 55 percent to 60 percent.
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