Posco Opens Steel Sheet Plant in Thailand

Steelmaker Posco has officially opened a factory in Rayong, Thailand, to make galvanized steel sheet for the country’s auto industry. It’s the South Korean company’s first such facility in southeast Asia.

Posco has been supplying the market from Korea. It competes there with two local affiliates of Japanese steelmakers, JFE Steel Galvanizing and Nippon Steel & Sumikin Galvanizing.

The $300 million plant was completed at the end of August and has the capacity to make 450,000 tons of galvanized steel per year. The JFE and Nippon Steel factories have annual capacities of 400,000 tons and 360,000 tons, respectively.

Posco (formerly Pohang Iron and Steel Co.) says its new facility raises the company's global capacity to more than 9 million tons of steel sheet, including 2.3 million tons made outside Korea. The company hopes to achieve worldwide volume of at least 10 million tons of sheet in 2018.