Sep 5 2006
On the 23rd, POSCO saw the completion of the TWB Plant, a high value-added automotive steel plates processing plant, at Gwangyang Works.
With the TWB Plant, POSCO will be able to produce a variety of shapes – linear, non-linear, complex, etc. - of automotive steel plates to meet the various needs of its customers.
POSCO will continue to develop automotive plates and enhance customer services to provide customers with total solutions for automotive steels. One of the new systems will be the EVI (Early Vendor Involvement) system through which POSCO and motor companies will work together from the initial development to the mass production stages.
In order to meet customer needs and ensure a stable supply of various automobile parts based on newly developed processing technologies, POSCO began its TWB business to produce 1,700,000 steels in 2003 and has constantly expanded production capacity up to 3,600,000.
With the new plant, which is the third expansion, POSCO is capable of producing 6,700,000 TWB steels a year.
Gwangyang Works` TWB Plant includes a laser cutting machine, two blanking lines, seven laser welding lines, and many other pieces of equipment for reliable product development.
As TWB products reduce the overall weight of vehicles by 10%, contribute to energy conservation, and improved rigidity in collisions, POSCO expects to pursue Win-Win strategies with motor companies.
TWB products, which are generally used as inner plates on automobiles, ease processing and save on costs; hence, they are expected to become very popular in the market.
Compared to 2004, POSCO`s TWB sales have grown five-fold in 2006 both in Korea and abroad. TWB consumption is increasing by more than 10% every year in China, the new market for leading European brands, and in India and many companies are increasing investments in Southeast Asia.
POSCO established the No. 6 CGL in June 2006 for the production of 6,500,000 tons of automotive steel plates each year and added the new TWB Plant, the Hot Press Forming Plant for super-durable parts, and the Hydroforming Plant for complex shapes. By doing so, POSCO became a world-class automotive steels supplier, providing total solutions for automotive steels and parts.
Approximately 100 people, including Senior Executive Vice President Joon-Yang Chung of POSCO, and members of leading motor vehicles companies and suppliers participated in the completion ceremony held at Gwangyang Works.