Invest KOREA

South Korea’s steelmaking giant Posco has completed renovation of its third blast furnace at Pohang complex after four-month of works upgrading it with artificial intelligence (AI)-based system to boost production capacity and extend life.

The company said on Tuesday that it restarted operation of its third blast furnace at its Pohang mill, located on the southeastern coast of the country, after completing four-month repair works. Following the renovation, the size of the Pohang third furnace is expanded to 5,600 cubic meters(㎥) from 4,350 ㎥. It is the world’s fifth largest based on size and is capable of producing 14,000 tons of molten metal a day.

There are only a limited number of blast furnaces that are larger than 5,500 ㎥ in the world, and Posco has five large-sized furnaces including the world’s biggest Gwangyang first furnace (6,000 ㎥), Pohang third furnace (5,600 ㎥), Pohang fourth furnace (5,600 ㎥), Gwangyang fourth furnace (5,500 ㎥), and Gwangyang fifth furnace (5,500 ㎥). Japan has four and China three while Russia and Germany each owns one large-sized furnace.

On top of expanding the size, the steelmaker upgraded its Pohang third furnace with AI-based technology. The company was able to build a smart blast furnace embedded with a system that automatically controls the furnace and helps to extend the life based on its experiences of repairing furnaces over 28 occasions, said an unnamed Posco official.

The company expects its new Pohang third furnace would run much longer than existing furnaces with an average life of 15 years.



By Moon Ji-woong

Copyrights Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Source: Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea (Jun. 6, 2017)