- Introduced a local branch in Brazil as an Outpost for breaking into the local market
- Plans to run a comprehensive IT, electricity, and control system business combining steel mill and railroad construction

POSCO ICT (CEO Hur Nam-Suk) has established a local headquarter in Brazil, with an expectation of the country’s rapid growth, driven especially by the next World Cup and Olympics.

POSCO ICT announced that, with this local branch, it plans to have a stronghold in place for advancing into the local market, which is rapidly growing, and, further, launching a full-fledged business, there. POSCO ICT’s branch in Brazil will focus on introducing new subway and LED lighting systems, as well as steel mill and plant construction combining its electricity and control technologies. The name of this local corporate body is ‘POSCO ICT Brazil’, whose main office is located in Sao Paulo.

In 2009, the company entered into an agreement for providing screen doors (PSD) for the local subway line no. 2 and 4, in Sao Paulo, and, in 2010, for subway line no. 3. Last month, the company won orders for building new railway systems for the local line no. 3 and is planning to implement all of its local business, from system building and providing to installing and test running process, by turnkey system, until October of 2013. The budget for the railroad construction, under the contract it has made with the Brazilian government, amounts to 4.7 billion won; the company expectedly will win orders of the kind from other adjacent regions including Argentina.

Besides, introduction of this new local branch will drive the company’s plant automation business for CSP steel mills in Brazil into a full-blown stage. CSP steel mills are Integrated steel mill, which are under construction, in a joint project participated in by Vale, the biggest supplier of iron ore in Brazil, Dong Kuk Steel Mill, and POSCO; these mills will process iron up to six million tons, annually. In this project, POSCO ICT is responsible for stabilizing entire infrastructure including IT and EIC (electricity, instrumentation, and computers), systems which are required to build integrated mills such as shaft furnace, materials, sintering, coke, steelmaking mills.

“We expect the Brazilian market will experience a rapid growth, with the World Cup and Olympics, it holds, respectively, in 2014 and 2016. We also prospect the local SOC business, such as railroad construction or transportation, will reach the momentum,” said an official at POSCO ICT. “In this local market targeting mission, we will be expanding our business to the entire area of South America including Argentina, not limiting our business focus only to the Brazilian market.