Eui-ddeum Ryu, Gounee Yang Global Economic News SOUTH KOREAN steel giant POSCO on Friday kicked off the construction of an automotive steel sheet factory in Tangshan, northern China’s Hebei Province. POSCO and HBIS Group, China’s second-largest steelmaker, in September last year formed a 50-50 joint venture to cooperate in building automotive steel sheet plants and marketing the steel sheets in China. The facility will have an annual capacity of 900,000 tons, POSCO said, and construction will likely be complete by the end of 2023. “Based on the technology and experience the two companies have acquired, we will upgrade the production capacity of automotive steel sheets,” Choi Jeong-woo, chairman of POSCO, said during a groundbreaking ceremony held online Friday. Steel plates produced at the plant will be supplied to major automakers including Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, BMW, Volkswagen and others, according to a statement by HBIS. Total capacity is expected to reach 1.35 million tons every year when the project is put into production in 2023, HBIS said. | 