South Korea wins bid to host World Steel Association annual meeting for first time in 22 years

Chang In-hwa, chairman of the Korea Iron & Steel Association and Posco Group, has secured Seoul as the host city for next year's World Steel Association annual general meeting — the first time the gathering of global steel industry CEOs will be held in South Korea in 22 years.

The World Steel Association confirmed Seoul as the venue for its 2027 annual general meeting at a member company meeting held Tuesday (local time) in New Delhi, India, announcing the decision Wednesday.

The association's annual general meeting brings together CEOs and industry officials from major global steelmakers each October to discuss key issues facing the industry. South Korea last hosted the event in Seoul in 2005.

At the New Delhi meeting, Chang appeared in a promotional video announcing Seoul as the next host city and called on member companies to participate actively.

South Korea is the world's sixth-largest steel producer, recording crude steel output of 62.23 million tons last year. Per-capita steel consumption stands at 844 kilograms, among the highest in the world. The country's steel industry has expanded alongside growth in key manufacturing sectors including automobiles, shipbuilding and machinery.

South Korea is also pushing to transform its production methods to cut carbon emissions, including through the development of hydrogen-based direct reduction ironmaking technology. The process uses hydrogen instead of coal to remove oxygen from iron ore, and is considered a viable alternative for reducing carbon emissions generated during steelmaking.

Chang attended the World Steel Association annual general meeting in New Delhi from Sunday through Tuesday, discussing climate change response and low-carbon steel production with executives from major steelmakers.

At the executive committee session on Sunday, participants addressed shared industry challenges including guidelines for establishing standards for low-carbon steel products and the international standardization of carbon emissions allocation methods.

Chang also stressed the importance of disaster preparedness in the face of climate change. He shared the experience of Posco's Pohang steelworks being flooded by Typhoon Hinnamnor in 2022, and said governments and the private sector need to build cooperative frameworks to prepare for extreme weather events.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Chang pursued business cooperation with Indian steelmakers, holding a separate meeting with JSW Group Chairman Sajjan Jindal to discuss ways to collaborate on steel operations in India.

Posco signed a joint venture agreement with JSW Steel, India's largest steelmaker, in April and is moving forward with plans to build an integrated steel mill in the Indian state of Odisha with an annual capacity of 6 million tons. Each company will hold a 50 percent stake, with completion targeted for 2031.

The investment is part of Posco Group's "Triple Core" strategy, which aims to localize production and sales in high-growth overseas markets and leverage that presence to strengthen the competitiveness of its domestic steel business.

The outlook for India's steel market remains bright. According to the World Steel Association's short-term outlook released Monday, global steel demand this year is expected to remain roughly flat compared with the previous year at 1.72 billion tons. India, by contrast, is forecast to reach 172.4 million tons, a 7.9 percent increase year on year.

Meanwhile, Posco won the top prize in the process safety category at the World Steel Association's Safety and Health Excellence Awards at the meeting, recognized for its AI-based accident prevention technology.

The award-winning system, developed in-house by Posco, uses AI to analyze video data from steelworks sites, automatically detecting and alerting workers to hazardous situations near personnel and equipment. Posco was recognized for enabling proactive identification of and response to accident risks before they occur during operations.