This photo provided by Dongkuk Steel Mill Co. shows its coated steel sheet.
SEOUL, July 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s major steelmakers are engaged in stiff competition to get the upper hand in the production of color steel plates, for which demand is surging in the areas of construction and home appliances.
Color steel plates are steel products that are coated with special paints, with digital printers employed to realize various textures such as marble and wood.
These new steel plates are emerging as a high value added item for the steel industry, since they are increasingly being used for a variety of home electronics such as washing machines, refrigerators and TVs, as well as interior and exterior building materials.
POSCO Coated & Color Steel Co., an unit of South Korean steel giant POSCO, on Wednesday launched a premium brand INFINeLI by integrating its color steel plate products.
Unlike in the past when the company developed and sold the products mainly for building materials and the home electronics industry, it will expand the scope of application by maximizing the strength of the products.
In March, market leader Dongkuk Steel Mill Co. developed color steel plates that block COVID-19 for the first time in South Korea.
The anti-virus and anti-bacteria color steel plate Luxteel Bio 3.0 can destroy more than 99 percent of the virus within one hour.
The industry’s No. 2 player, KG Dongbu Steel Co., completed the construction of two color steel plate production lines at its Dangjin plant in May and launched full-scale operations.
The nation’s cumulative output of color steel plates stood at 927,409 tons for the January to May period of this year, up 14 percent year on year, according to the Korea Iron & Steel Association.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
