Total recovery work of 30,000 people during the holiday period
Firefighters are working on restoration at the POSCO Pohang Works, which was damaged by Typhoon Hinnamno. Provided by the Fire Department.
The blast furnace (blast furnace) of the POSCO Pohang Works, which was suspended due to flood damage due to the 11th typhoon ‘Hinnamno’, will be restarted tomorrow as soon as possible.
On the 12th, POSCO announced that “4 blast furnaces are scheduled to operate normally today, and all three blast furnaces are scheduled to operate normally tomorrow.” At the POSCO Pohang Works, three blast furnaces 2-4 are installed except for blast furnace 1, which stopped operating at the end of last year. Pohang Works was shut down due to flooding and power outages in most areas of the steelworks, including the faucet substation, KEPCO’s electricity supply facility, due to record heavy rain of up to 500mm and flooding of cold springs in the early morning of the 6th. It is the first time in 49 years since molten iron production began in 1973 that the three blast furnaces at Pohang Works stopped operating at the same time.
If the blast furnace is stopped for more than five days, it takes several months to restart, so POSCO emphasized that it is putting all its effort into restarting the blast furnace. During the Chuseok holiday, an average of 8,000 people per day, including employees of Pohang Works and Gwangyang Works, suppliers and related organizations, were put into the restoration work.
POSCO explained that it will focus on restoration of facilities for steelmaking (removing impurities from molten iron) and casting (working to make slabs from molten iron) to treat the molten iron produced in the blast furnace. The Pohang Works, which started the re-operation of the 2nd steelmaking 4 converter and the 3rd steel 1st converter the day before, plan to normalize all steel making facilities as soon as possible. The rolling mill (processing iron by applying heat and pressure), which suffered the most from the flooding of a nearby river, is still in the process of draining and removing mud. “Only when the restoration of underground facilities is completed, we can accurately estimate the extent of damage and establish a plan for operation following that,” POSCO explained.
In order to reduce damage to customers, POSCO will convert the Gwangyang Works to the largest production system and begin production of emergency materials, while also operating an emergency shipment response team to supply inventory to customers from the 13th. “Prior to electrical restoration and facility commissioning, we are repeating verification and inspection to ensure that necessary safety measures are not omitted,” said POSCO.
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