POSCO International announced on Jan. 10 its plan to supply Hyperloop-specific steel to the European Hyperloop Center (EHC) within the European Union (EU) for an additional test section project this year. A total of 275 tons of the steel developed and produced by POSCO, called POSLOOP355, has been supplied since 2022 to Hardt, a Hyperloop developer in the Netherlands, for a test line currently under construction. An additional 1,800 tons will be supplied by 2025 for a 2.7 km test section.
The EU plans to commercialize the Hyperloop EU Network Project by 2029, with EHC as the hub. In November last year, POSCO International established a strategic partnership with Hardt, securing the right to supply steel for the Hyperloop project. POSCO International has also invested in Hardt and is committed to expanding collaboration in the European Hyperloop project.
This partnership marks POSCO International’s significant entry into the nascent Hyperloop industry ecosystem. A company spokesperson commented, “The environmental friendliness, cost-effectiveness, and safety of a Hyperloop will stimulate advancements in various industries, including materials and IT.”
A Hyperloop is a transportation method where magnetically levitating capsules travel at high speeds inside a vacuum tube with 0.001 atmospheric pressure, which could potentially connect Seoul and Busan in just 20 minutes if it went at 1,200 kph. The term Hyperloop combines “hypersonic,” meaning a speed faster than sound, with the word “loop,” inferring that it is a continuous circuit. The Hyperloop is one of POSCO International’s four major future energy steel projects, along with Carbon Capture and Storage, air batteries (water+air energy generation and storage systems), and liquefied hydrogen storage and transport.