POSCO Group CEO, Jeong-woo Choi, to take office as Chairman of worldsteel, leading a great shift for the steel industry to go green

• CEO Choi was inaugurated as the chairman of worldsteel at the Annual General Meeting held in Brussels, Belgium, on October 18.
• POSCO Group won two Steelie Awards in the categories of innovation, sustainability, while its Smart Safety Ball was selected as an outstanding practice.
• "While the key to eco-friendly future material is steel, we will lay the foundation for the commercialization of Hydrogen Reduction (HyREX) technology," said Choi.

SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- POSCO Group CEO, Jeong-woo Choi was inaugurated as the 44th chairman of worldsteel at the annual general meeting held in Brussels, Belgium, on October 18 (local time).

Choi will represent the world's steel industry, together with Chairman Sajjan Jinda of Jindal Steel Works Limited India and CEO Leon Topalian of Nucor, who are the vice chairmen of worldsteel. The executive management of worldsteel is led by one chairman and two vice chairmen, with a three-year-term in office.

Choi served as vice chairman over the year after being appointed to the executive management of worldsteel in October 2021, as he was credited for his outstanding management achievement and global leadership with which he successfully organized the Hydrogen Iron & Steel (HyIS) Making Forum to discuss HyREX technology as the first of its kind in the steel industry.

He has become the 4th chairman of worldsteel from POSCO Group, following Man-jae Kim (1996 ~ 1997), Goo-taek Lee (2007 ~ 2008), and Joon-yang Jung (2013 ~ 2014).

"Steel will be the key to eco-friendly future materials. We will strive to encourage all the steel companies to work together to lay the foundation for commercialization of HyREX technology and address the current industrial challenges such as carbon neutrality and ESG management," said Choi.

Meanwhile, POSCO won two prizes at the 2022 Steelie Awards this year in the categories of innovation, sustainability organized by worldsteel, held during the annual general meeting days starting from October 16. POSCO was acknowledged for its certified program for safety and health as a best practice.

The Steelie Awards recognize outstanding steel companies as well as members of worldsteel which make contributions to the development of the steel industry every year, starting from 2010. The Awards are grouped into six categories: low-carbon steel production, innovation, sustainability, life cycle assessment, education and training, and communications programs.

In the "Innovation of the year," the technology of "fast current electrochemical pickling" for wide stainless material (over 1200mm in width) was recognized.

The technology was developed as the first of its kind in the world by POSCO. With this technology, alternating current is utilized to remove pollutants from wide stainless products and clean up the surface through the pickling process at a high speed.

This technology enables reducing the use of mixed acid, a chemical used in the traditional pickling process, which can also reduce the environmental effect. Also, the technology can be applied to the production of other products, such as carbon steel which requires the pickling process.

In the "Excellence in sustainability," POSCO's rendering of shell waste to resources was awarded.

Based on the idea that the main component of the shell is similar to limestone, POSCO successfully developed a technology to replace limestone with processed shell waste in the sintering process of turning iron ore into chunks.

The rendering case of shell waste was highly valued in that the technology can achieve the reduction of greenhouse gas, enhance the awareness for going green in the steel industry, and address the environmental problems of local communities, including wastewater and bad smell.

In the Steelie Awards, POSCO is the one and only Korean winner, who received the awards eight times in total: five times in innovation (2012, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021), two times in sustainability (2010, 2020), and one time in communications programs (2021).

The Smart Safety Ball was certified as a good practice in the safety and health field, which is the world's first detection device for harmful gas, developed by POSCO. The certification this year is POSCO's 3rd achievement, following the POSCO-way safety program (2010) and Safety Golden Bell (2020).

With 60mm in diameter and 100g in weight, Smart Safety Ball enables checking of the concentration level of three types of gases (oxygen, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen sulfide). If it is thrown to a closed space either during operation or before maintenance work, the Ball can immediately detect the gas concentration and prevent safety accidents.

The measured figures can be identified both simultaneously and remotely. Once the danger is detected, the warning alert and location data are sent to colleagues and managers.

According to World Steel Dynamics (WSD), the global leading steel information service, POSCO was selected as No. 1 for 12 consecutive years as the world's most competitive steel company. In 2018 and 2020, POSCO was awarded the Best Steel Company Award selected by S&P Global Platts. Also, being selected as the member with the best sustainability by worldsteel this April, POSCO has been recognized as the most competitive steel player in the world.

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