Transfer of Waste Direct Melting Furnace Technology to POSCO E&C

Nippon Steel Corporation (President Akira Chihaya) and POSCO E&C， an engineering subsidiary of POSCO (Chairman Deuk-Pyo， Park)， have been negotiating on the transfer of NSC’s Direct Melting System (shaft furnacetype gasification and melting furnace) technology to POSCO E&C. The two companies have now reached a formal accord and executed an agreement therefor.

With an aim to make a full-scale entry into the Korean market for general waste treatment facilities， POSCO E&C has investigated the introduction of waste processing furnace technology which has a promising future in the Republic of Korea. And out of a number of waste processing technologies， POSCO E&C has selected NSC’s Direct Melting Systemwhich has the largest record of commercial applications for its excellent reliability.

On the basis of the technical transfer agreement concluded with NSC， POSCO E&C plans to bid for the waste melting furnace project for which the City of Yangsan is expected to call a public tender in the near future.

The present technical cooperation is a significant result in the engineering area born out of the comprehensive alliance previously formed between NSC and POSCO.

Already fifteen units of NSC’s Direct Melting System are in operation in Japan (the cumulative number of orders secured amounts to twenty-one)， the largest number in the world’s waste treating gasified furnace， so-called ”Gasification”， business. With the present technical transfer to POSCO E&C as a momentum， NSC intends to launch a full-scale marketing of the technology overseas.

Reference: Outline of POSCO E&C

Head office: Pohang， the Republic of Korea
Establishment: 1994 (spin off of POSCO steelworks’ engineering and construction divisions)
Capital: ￥343.60 million
Number of employees: Approx. 1，300
Executives: Chairman Deuk-Pyo， Park， President Hak-Bong， Ko
Sales: US$735 million (fiscal 2001)， approx. ￥88.2 billion
Business line: Steel-making and energy-related plants， environmental plant， building and construction

For more information about this release， please call
Nippon Steel Engineering +81-3-3275-6030