An Innovative Building Technology
South Korea’s leading steelmaker POSCO has developed a new building technology that can stack up three floors at one go.
The company announced on Aug. 7 that its “POSCO Box (P-Box) pillar and ferroconcrete beam bonding” technology has been designated as a new construction technology by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport.
Unlike the previous method of stacking up reinforced concrete by each floor, the 15-meter high P-Box steel pipe column filled with concrete allows builders to pile up three floors at a time, which significantly reduces construction period.
POSCO has developed the new technology together with builders.
A POSCP official said, “The new technology connects a horizontal reinforced concrete beam to P-Box steel pipe column filled with concrete. It can save construction costs by 10 to 15 percent and reduces carbon emissions by more than 1.5 percent.”
Meanwhile, POSCO shows a high profitability compared to other global steel producers amid a prolonged global steel market slowdown.
The group had a consolidated operating margin of 6.5 percent in the second quarter, which is higher than 4.1 percent of ArcelorMittal, the largest steel producer in the European Union, and 1.6 percent of Nippon Steel. Baoshan Iron and Steel, the largest steelmaker in China, has not announced its second-quarter earnings yet, but it is expected to see a lower profitability than 5.6 percent in the first quarter.
The operating margin of POSCO’s steel business, excluding its affiliates in other sectors, stood at 9.7 percent.