South Korea’s steel giant Posco will start mass production of green machine-friendly graphite steel, poised for rapid growth amid global efforts to shift to environment-friendly products.

Posco said Thursday that it will start full-fledged production of free machining steel, branded as PosGRAM for using graphite in the steel product.

Free machine steel used in fabrication of machine tools forms small chips when machined, thus increasing the machinability of the material and prevent entanglement in the machinery. It allows cleaner and faster cut.

The firm plans to market PosGRAM free machining steel both at home and abroad. Until now, local firms have relied all of their free machining steel needs on imports. The annual free machining steel import amounted to 23,000 tons, worth 23 billion won ($19.4 million). The worldwide free machining steel market is estimated at 1 million tons.

PosGRAM is made with graphite in place of lead, making it more environmentally-friendly while guaranteeing clean, uniformed cuts as those made with lead, said the company. Posco is the first in the world to mass produce the eco-friendly free machining steel, the company claimed.

The demand for its green free machining steel is expected to grow rapidly as companies across the world have been reducing the use of lead, considered harmful to possibly cause anemia and other health problems from high exposure. The lead free machining steel currently accounts for more than half of the global production.

Posco completed development of PosGRAM last year after it began the project in 2017. It already has PosGRAM’s quality tested by its major clients since June.

The steel maker has been actively developing green products. It began mass producing high alloy steel used in SOx scrubber, a machine for cleaning exhaust gases in vessel in September last year.

By Seo Dong-cheol and Cho Jeehyun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]