OREANDA-NEWS. May 24, 2012. POSCO opened the third POSCO-CSPC plant on May 17. It is an automotive steel sheet processing center located inside the Huaqiao Economic Development Zone in the Chinese city of Kunshan, Jiangsu Province.

The opening ceremony featured more than 180 special guests, such as POSCO Chief Marketing Officer Hwang Eun-yeon, Kunshan City Vice Mayor Han Wei and representatives of POSCO`s partner companies in China.

``Since the launch of POSCO-CSPC in 2004, POSCO`s first automotive processing center, POSCO has opened and been operating 20 processing centers in 13 Chinese cities,`` Hwang said in his congratulatory speech. ``Our future depends on your trust and success. We will do our best to help you succeed.``

POSCO is seeking to keep pace with the rapidly growing Chinese automotive industry. Another new processing center specializing in galvanized steel sheets and steel alloy sheets is scheduled to open in Foshan, Guangdong Province, at the end of this year.

The newly opened Kunshan processing facility is equipped with a blanking line, which is used to produce automobile frames by feeding the coils into the press machine automatically. With an annual processing capacity of 50,000 tons, the new facility has been built to efficiently cope with the ever-increasing production capacity of global carmakers based in the metropolitan Shanghai area, as well as to increase POSCO`s market share of automotive steel products in the region.

POSCO-CPSC`s first processing center started operation in October 2004, followed by the opening of the second plant featuring a progressive press in July 2007. As of this month, cumulative sales from the two processing centers has reached 1.88 million tons, beating competitors in the region.

It was through CSPC that POSCO has supplied over 300,000 tons of automotive steel products every year to global carmakers such as Shanghai GM and Volkswagen, as well as the Chinese automaker Geely Motor. In addition, POSCO has collaborated closely with Korean automotive parts manufacturers including Austem and MR-InfraAuto, in an effort to boost their sales to global carmakers by building and operating production facilities together.

Located between Shanghai and Suzhou, the hub of the Chinese automotive industry, Kunshan and its nearby areas are home to quite a few global and local automakers` Chinese production headquarters, including those for GM, Volkswagen and Geely Motor. For this reason, demand for high quality automotive steel products is higher in the area than anywhere else in China. Even though CSPC operates 24 hours a day, it has never met the brisk demand, which is why the company built the third factory.

POSCO expects the new facility to add over 50,000 tons to CSPC`s annual production capacity. It will secure enough blanking capacity to handle increasing demand for steel products for new vehicles.

The metal molds used on the new plant`s blanking line are provided by CSPC`s car-making customers. It is believed that this will strengthen ties between the two parties.