Hot metal "Pouring"...a furnace burning in the new year

[Anchor]
There's a place where the lights haven't gone out for a single day for over decades.

It's a steel mill that makes iron, the root of our industry,
There is a reporter at POSCO Pohang Steelworks in
.

Reporter Hwang Bo-hye-kyung, is the metal still spewing out?

[Reporter]
Yes, this is Pohang Steelworks' 2nd furnace.

Hot metal, which reaches 1,500℃, is pouring from the furnace.

The furnace boils 365 days, 24 hours a day without a break.

Employees who have wrapped their whole body in silver heat suits like me are sweating here on New Year's Day.

Inside the 100m-high furnace, iron ore and coal, which are raw materials for iron, are stacked in layers.

When hot air is blown from the bottom, iron ore melts in the heat generated by the burning of coal to form molten metal.

Pohang Steelworks has been pumping out molten metal for more than 50 years since 1973.

When impurities are removed from the metal and solidified, steel is made,

Pohang Steelworks alone produces 14 million tons of steel products a year.

Iron is also called the 'rice of industry' because it is used throughout our lives and industries, from smartphones to satellites.

However, the steel industry is having a more difficult time than ever due to the sluggish domestic construction economy and the offensive of low-priced products from China.

In the end, Pohang Steelworks also closed two factories last year.

Despite the crisis, the steel industry is the root of the manufacturing industry and continues to be a strong support for our economy even at this moment.

I hope that not only the steel industry but also the Korean economy as a whole will make a strong leap forward in the new year like the flame of the furnace here that does not go out.

So far, I'm YTN Hwang Bo Hye-kyung in Pohang Steelworks' 2nd furnace.



a photographer