South Korea’s Posco remains atop in steelmaking competitiveness for the 10th year, according to the latest ranking by the World Steel Dynamics (WSD), global steel industry analysis agency.

The honor was mentioned at the 34th Steel Success Strategies conference held in New York City on June 17-19. Nucor of the United States came second, followed by Voestalpine of Australia, Severstal of Russia, and Nippon Steel of Japan to make the top five.

The agency evaluates top 34 steel companies based on 23 criteria ranging from technology and innovation to environment. It is the only agency in the world that provides a quantified evaluation of steelmakers’ management performance and potential.

Posco earned 8.35 points out of a perfect 10, topping seven categories including high-value-added product mix, technological innovation, and human resources.

Posco kept up sales through premium steel products despite softening demand from steel-consuming industries amid trade protectionism across the world. WSD also gave high scores to the company’s ongoing effort to generate not only economic values but also community values, stated the company in a press release.

Under the leadership of Choi Jeong-woo, Posco’s chairman and chief executive officer, the Korean steelmaker is working to renovate itself, the company explained. Upon celebrating its 50 years in business last year, the company unveiled a new management philosophy of “corporate citizenship” and collected opinions on reforming the company from inside and outside. The company is holding a group-wide executive meeting to share its vision and strategy next month.

Choi vowed to run the company to be more socially responsible and increase its outreach to various stakeholders in the community in a report on the company’s corporate citizenship vision released recently.

By Kang Gye-man and Cho Jeehyun

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