Sep 19 2006
POSCO signed an MOU ... The strategic base to supply automotive steel plates to North America
POSCO will construct an automotive steel plates plant in Mexico, the emerging automotive production base of North America, in order to stabilize its position as the world`s greatest automotive steel plates supplier.
POSCO signed an MOU for the construction of the automotive steel plates plant with the State Government of Tamaulipas, City of Altamira, and Altamira Industrial Complex at 2:00 AM (Korean Time) on the 13th in Altamira of Mexico. POSCO will make full investment in the plant to start the construction in 2008 and the operation in 2009.
Major products from the plant will be about 400,000 tons of zinc-plated steel alloy plates and zinc-plated steel plates for automobiles a year and POSCO will directly supply raw materials for the production.
Mexico guarantees low cost of labor and is the concentration of leading motor companies, such as GM, Toyota, Volkswagen, etc, and about 1,000 automotive parts suppliers, thus becoming the new-rising global base of automotive materials and parts supplier.
Also, Altamira is close to the southeastern part of U.S., including Alabama, which has the capacity to produce over 2,200,000 of automobiles with GM, Nissan, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, etc and is known as the optimal automotive steel plates supplier base.
As over 1,600,000 tons of zinc-plated automotive steel plates are demanded in Mexico and the southeastern part of U.S. every year and only 300,000 tons are currently supplied, POSCO believes that its automotive steel plates plant in Mexico will normalize its business very quickly.
With the plant, POSCO will be able to supply its products to the U.S. market based on the 1992 NAFTA between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, thus avoiding the strict trade issues of the U.S. Government. By doing so, POSCO will establish stable supply channels to the U.S. plants of Korea-based motor companies, such as Hyundai.