Dongkuk Steel Mill Co., South Korea’s third-largest steelmaker, has made another milestone with commercial production of thick plate using the first batch of steel slab produced from its long-awaited first blast furnace steelwork in Brazil.

Dongkuk Steel Mill that was founded in 1954 as the first private steel company in Korea officially kicked off the operation of Companhia Siderurgica do Pecem (CSP) steel mill located in Ceará, east of Brazil last June, nearly a decade after the company first unveiled the plan to build a blast furnace in Brazil.

Having a blast furnace was a dream for Dongkuk Steel Mill over the three generations of the company’s owner family members. The company had been making several attempts to build a blast furnace since 1962. Its first plan to build a mid-sized blast furnace was aborted due to the government’s denial in favor of a large-sized one led by then state steel mill Posco.

In 2001, Dongkuk Steel Mill turned its eye to Brazil which was eager to build a steel factory and laid out its plan for its blast furnace there four years later.

The steelmaker led the $5.5 billion-invested CSP Steel Mill construction project while teaming up with two partners -- Posco and Brazil-based Vale, the world’s largest iron ore mining company.

On Mar. 17, the first batch of 58,751-ton steel slab produced from CSP Steel Mill arrived at Dangjin Port, in South Korea, after a journey of 49 days over a distance of 19,378 kilometers.

“We launched the pioneering CSP project with a mindset of nothing is impossible, and we’ve finally completed building a global steel belt,” said Dongkuk Steel vice chairman Chang Sae-wook during a ceremony on Tuesday to mark its first steel slab import from the mill.

CSP Steel Mill sits on 9.9 million square meters of land, equivalent to the size of 1,372 soccer fields, and the blast furnace is 110 meters tall. It was a global project co-funded by Dongkuk Steel Mill, Vale and Posco, with their shareholdings divided to 30 percent, 50 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Dongkuk Steel Mill planned the project under support of Posco that shared its blast furnace technology. Vale is supplying iron ore to the mill which is co-operated by the three companies.

CSP Steel Mill’s annual production capacity is 3 million tons, and Dongkuk Steel Mill can secure up to 1.6 million tons of the annual production for direct use in Korea or exports.

The company will use 1.46 million tons of steel slab produced from the plant this year, import 600,000 tons to South Korea for domestic use, and export the remaining volume.

By Moon Ji-woong

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]