This file photo, provided by POSCO on Sept. 13, 2022, shows a factory of the steelmaker in the southeastern port city of Pohang.
SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea plans to create a fund worth 150 trillion won (US$116.9 million) to provide assistance for steelmakers’ transition to a low-emission production structure and to boost competitiveness, the industry ministry said Thursday.
Industry Minister Lee Chang-yang and chiefs of the country’s seven major steelmakers, including POSCO Holdings Inc., Hyundai Steel Co. and Dongkuk Steel Mill Co., signed an agreement to promote investment and technology development to achieve low-carbon steelmaking, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
For the goal, they decided to set up an alliance for cooperation and policy coordination in the first quarter of this year and to launch the fund for decarbonization projects, which will be used when their current 150 billion-won fund for the industry’s environmental, social and corporate governance runs out, it added.
Earlier, the government vowed to earmark 26.9 billion won between 2023 and 2025 for research and development of key technologies to achieve zero-emission goals, as the country seeks to replace 11 coal-fueled blast furnaces with 14 hydrogen-powered ones.
Coal-burning furnaces accounted for nearly 70 percent of the country’s total steel production as of last year, according to government data.
South Korea has been working to expedite the transition to a carbon-neutral production structure, particularly as the European Union decided to implement the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that calls for levying an import charge on steel, cement, electricity, fertilizer, aluminum and other related items equivalent to their carbon emissions from production.
The EU’s regulation scheme will fully take effect in 2026 after a transition period set to begin in October 2023.
(Yonhap)
