Hyundai Steel announced on the 31st that it has successfully completed the component press quality inspection for carbon-reduced automobile steel plates in collaboration with Ford Otosan, a Turkish complete vehicle manufacturer. The steel plates are used for the rear upper cover panel of the Ford Tourneo Custom.
The carbon-reduced steel plates from Hyundai Steel are products that reduce carbon emissions while providing performance equivalent to traditional blast furnace automobile steel plates through the 'electric arc furnace-blast furnace hybrid process,' which mixes blast furnace molten metal into the electric arc furnace. Hyundai Steel plans to convert the Dangjin Steel Plant's hot-rolled plate factory, which was shut down in 2020, into a carbon-reduced automobile steel plate plant for mass production.
Hyundai Steel expects that if the process is commercialized in the second half of this year, it will be able to supply automobile steel plates that reduce carbon emissions by about 20% compared to existing processes to its customers. To produce carbon-reduced steel plates, Hyundai Steel will also apply the 'Hy-Cube' technology, which mixes iron scrap, direct reduced iron (DRI), and molten iron produced in the blast furnace.
A Hyundai Steel official noted, 'We have achieved the result of participating as the first mover in the press test for carbon-reduced automobile steel plates for Ford Otosan, which has been influential in the European commercial vehicle market, validating their suitability.' They added, 'We will continue to develop the hybrid process through research and development to lead the carbon-reduced product market.'
Hyundai Steel plans to actively target the global automobile steel plate market, having entered commercial production of the third-generation automobile steel plates developed to secure formability while increasing strength by 20% compared to existing steel plates, along with the carbon-reduced steel plates. Last year, Hyundai Steel sold over 1 million tons (t) of steel plates to complete vehicle manufacturers excluding Hyundai and Kia.