Korea Industrial Complex Corp. chief conducts safety inspection at Ulsan national complex

Kim Dae-ja, the newly appointed chairman of the Korea Industrial Complex Corp., made a safety inspection of industrial complex infrastructure her first field visit since taking office.

On Tuesday, she visited the Ulsan National Industrial Complex to inspect a Steam Highway pipeline construction site and the complex's integrated underground pipeline safety management system.

The Ulsan National Industrial Complex is the country's largest petrochemical hub, and the heavy handling of chemical substances means the risk of major accidents such as fires is ever-present. Kim first visited a ball-joint replacement construction site on the Steam Highway within the SK Energy facility. The Steam Highway is a steam pipeline stretching 6.2 kilometers in total, and the corporation has been replacing vulnerable ball joints since 2024 to prevent serious safety accidents, based on the results of a precision safety diagnosis conducted in 2023.

She then moved to the Integrated Safety Management Center, which oversees safety management of underground pipelines and air quality at the complex, to review its monitoring operations. Kim inspected the operating status of safety systems including digital twin-based 3D pipeline data, AI-based underground pipeline condition management, corrosion monitoring and air quality surveillance. She stressed the need for rapid initial response to abnormal signals and close coordination among relevant agencies.

"The highest value at any industrial site is the life and safety of workers," Kim said. "We will build an industrial complex where people can work with peace of mind, through field-centered preventive inspections and advanced safety management systems."