Korea Iron & Steel Association holds safety training with AI translation, risk assessment tools

The Korea Iron & Steel Association announced Tuesday that it held the "2026 Steel Industry Safety Capacity Building Training and Second-Half Steel Safety Forum" to strengthen the industry's occupational safety capabilities and upgrade on-site safety management systems.

The event, held at the Gyeongju Teachers' Dream Center, drew about 50 participants from 14 organizations, including major steelmakers such as Posco, Dongkuk Steel Mill, SeAH Besteel, SeAH Changwon Specialty Steel, SeAH Steel, TCC Steel and Nexteel, as well as ICT companies and research institutions.

Discussions covered the full range of steel industry safety management — from policy and ruling trends related to serious industrial accidents, to on-site accident investigation, risk assessment and AI-assisted safety training for foreign workers.

Lee Dong-kyung, a professor at Woosong University and president of the Korean Society of Serious Accidents, presented methods for preventing accident recurrence, including witness interview techniques. Lee said investigators' expertise and conduct during the investigation process are critical to accurately identifying the causes of accidents and preventing similar incidents.

Kim Kyung-geun, an attorney at law firm Daeryuk Aju, analyzed major rulings under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act and broke down the types of compliance violations companies should watch for. He also introduced the potential uses of the safety and health disclosure system and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act compliance certification regime.

On-site risk assessment and ways to improve safety management systems were also discussed. Park Ji-hwan, a senior official at the Industrial Safety Mutual Growth Foundation, explained recent amendments to the Occupational Safety and Health Act related to risk assessment and shared steel industry-specific cases from the foundation's mutual growth support activities, which include on-site safety management consulting.

Participants also explored how AI technology can help prevent safety accidents involving foreign workers. Park Il-woo, a team leader at HiLocal, presented development and pilot cases of an AI-based real-time interpretation and translation solution for foreign worker safety training, and shared plans and expected benefits for applying it at steel production sites.

At the second-half steel safety forum that followed, SeAH Besteel, SeAH Changwon Specialty Steel and YK Steel shared cases of safety culture initiatives they had carried out at their facilities. Participating companies also discussed ways to spread best safety practices more broadly and explored measures to further upgrade safety management systems, including the production of steel industry safety training videos.

The event was designed to spread individual workplaces' safety management experience across the industry and to integrate legal and regulatory changes and new technologies into on-site safety systems. The association said it plans to continue strengthening the steel industry's capacity to prevent serious accidents by facilitating the sharing of safety management know-how and best practices among member companies.

Meanwhile, the Korea Iron & Steel Association has been pursuing a range of activities to advance the steel industry, including recently signing an MOU with the Korea Expressway Corporation and the Korea Ascon Industry Cooperative Federation to introduce eco-friendly asphalt pavement using steelmaking slag.