SEOUL, KOREA - The Incheon plant of Hyundai Steel has broken the 100-million-ton milestone in cumulative steel output, the first among Korean steel makers operating electric furnaces, the company said on May 26. The plant in Incheon was completed in 1953 as the nation's first steel mill and began operations in 1956 with 118 tons of molten iron in the first year.

 

The steel works was then taken over by Incheon Steel in 1970 and changed its name to Hyundai Steel in 1978 when it was acquired by Hyundai Group from INI Steel. The plant has produced wide flange beams for structural construction, among others, since 1982 and supplied the beams to major construction sites in coal-fired thermal power plant near Bogota, Colombia, and the Jang Bogo Research Station in Antarctica.

 

A Hyundai Steel official said, "Hyundai Steel was the first company that produced steel products in Korea. We have recently reached a meaningful milestone of producing 100 million tons of steel. Beginning with the Incheon works, we sequentially built other steel mills including ones in Pohang, Dangjin, and Suncheon to supply reinforcing bars, flange beams, and hot-rolled steel products for automobile and electric appliance applications. Now we have become one of the world's major steel makers with a wide variety of product portfolios."