POSCO Group will invest a total of US$40 billion in Australia by 2040 together with its local partners, the group’s chairman Choi Jeong-woo said at a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra on Dec. 1.
“We regard Australia as the most important investment destination in securing hydrogen, which is essential to hydrogen reduction steelmaking,” Choi said at the meeting.
“POSCO Group’s business and investment plans in Australia match policy directions pursued by the Australian government,” Prime Minister Albanese replied. “We will actively cooperate with POSCO Group in its eco-friendly future materials business in Australia.”
POSCO Group is working hard to develop hydrogen reduction steelmaking, which emits water instead of carbon dioxide when producing steel, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. To this end, the steelmaker plans to produce green hydrogen based on competitive large-scale renewable energy such as solar and wind power in Australia, and use it to produce hot briquetted iron (HBI), a raw material processed from iron ore. In addition, POSCO plans to expand the use of green hydrogen to the production of slabs, a semifinished steel product, by applying HyREX, a hydrogen reduction steelmaking technology. It also has a blueprint to process green hydrogen produced in Australia into ammonia and supply it to the world.
Together with local partners, POSCO Group plans to invest US$28 billion in the hydrogen production domain including renewable energy and water electrolysis, and US$12 billion in green steel (eco-friendly steel), by 2040. It has invested more than four trillion won in Australia for resources development.
