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| Workers sweep muddy water out of a warehouse at POSCO's steel mill in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday. / Courtesy of POSCO Group |
By Kim Hyun-bin
POSCO has suspended operations at its main steel mill in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, for the first time in its 49-year history, due to flooding as a result of the heavy downpour that accompanied Typhoon Hinnamnor, according to company officials Wednesday.
The steelmaker formed the Typhoon Disaster Recovery TF with executives related to facilities, production, sales, technology and safety, led by Vice Chairman Kim Hak-dong, to discuss ways to normalize operations quickly.
According to the company, record heavy rainfall caused a river near the steel mill to overflow, flooding a significant portion of ??the plant.
It said there was no damage to the three blast furnaces, which are the core facilities of the steelworks, as they had been temporarily suspended, and will resume operations as soon as electricity comes back.
A blast furnace can be shut down for about five days for maintenance, but if its resumption is delayed it could incur huge costs to restart the furnace.
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| POSCO's Pohang steel plant is flooded from heavy rain due to Typhoon Hinnamnor, in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. / Yonhap |
"At this point, the most important thing is the early normalization of operations. In the case of flooded substations, we plan to first normalize them within one or two days and start restoration work," a POSCO Group official said.
It is expected that a disruption in the supply of steel materials will be inevitable due to the shutdown of all processes at the steel mill.
"We also established a policy to move some of the slabs produced at the Pohang steel mill to the Gwangyang steel mill to shift production there as much as possible," the official said.
POSCO Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo also visited POSCO's Pohang steel mill, Tuesday, to check the safety of damaged facilities and employees, and presided over an emergency response meeting at the site.
"The executives and employees should work together to repair the damage as quickly as possible and normalize operations so that there is no impact on the national and regional economies," the chairman said.
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