- Remarkable achievements in convergence business of IT and electric/control technology

POSCO ICT (CEO Bong-Rae Cho), the integrated company of POSDATA and POSCON, celebrated the fourth year of its foundation as of January 22.

Marking the fourth anniversary, POSCO ICT continues the growth trend after joining the 1 trillion won sales revenue club separately in 2012, and its operating profit to sales ratio increased last year.

POSCO ICT has drawn attention from the industry in that the IT company was integrated with the engineering company for the first time in Korea. Since its foundation, POSCO ICT has achieved remarkable results in convergence business (IT and electric/control technologies) and presents a new trend in the industry. As the government prohibited any participation of the conglomerate company in the public informatization project last year, and giving an unfair advantage to the conglomerate company when bidding for a project becomes a social issue, the industry focuses its attention on the changes made by POSCO ICT.

POSCO ICT set its top priority task this year to the enhancement of corporate value by improving profitability. For this purpose, POSCO ICT will strengthen its structure by securing order-receiving soundness throughout the company and carrying out creative cost reduction activities. Also, POSCO ICT will bring forth good results from energy efficiency business, which has been cultivated as growth business based on convergence solutions.

POSCO ICT stands out for its energy efficiency business, based on the smart grid. POSCO ICT developed the large-capacity energy storage system (ESS), based on the technical skills obtained from the smart grid demonstration project in Jeju, and exports the technology to overseas countries including Japan. POSCO ICT also released several energy efficiency solutions including the Factory Energy Management System (FEMS) and Building Energy Management System (BEMS), and develops those solutions as first-class business. These solutions were applied to POSCO, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, SNNC, POS Hi-Metal last year, and more references will be secured this year.

Overseas projects that combine the IT and engineering also are gaining momentum. POSCO ICT got an opportunity of participating in the Vietnam urban railway development project worth 100 billion won last year, and the Myanmar New Airport project worth 1 trillion and 200 billion won through the consortium with other Korean companies including Incheon International Airport Corporation. POSCO ICT has been developing business capabilities in large-scale overseas steelworks development projects, such as Brazil CSP Steelworks, Vietnam Ha Tinh Steelworks, and Indonesian integrated steel mill, by taking a leading role. For Chinese steel companies, POSCO ICT is developing new business models that provide specialized solutions, such as the industrial electric precipitator MPS (Micro Pulse System) and iron measuring instrument.

"We've taken one more step in developing IT and engineering convergence business after integration in 2010. The target of those efforts becomes attainable gradually, and the company comes to have a virtuous cycle structure by changing the company structure to promote profitability enhancement throughout the company, said one POSCO ICT official.