SeAH Group has supported overseas subsidiaries with an amount exceeding 600 million won through a capital increase and the acquisition of redeemable preferred shares over the past two months. Including the investment in its offshore wind subsidiary, the total support for overseas subsidiaries amounts to 1.565 billion won.
POSCO and Hyundai Steel are also pushing to build steel mills in the United States, indicating a trend of de-nationalization in the steel industry. The steel industry argues that government support is necessary for the development of the domestic steel industry and the stabilization of supply chains.
According to the steel industry on the 19th, SeAH Group supported a total of $45.1 million (approximately 63.1 billion won) to overseas steel subsidiaries between March and April. SeAH Besteel Holdings participated in the capital increase of the U.S. steel sales company and the Vietnamese subsidiary this month, providing $5.1 million (approximately 7.1 billion won) and $3.5 million (approximately 4.9 billion won), respectively.
SeAH Changwon Special Steel participated in a capital increase of SeAH Superalloy Technology, a U.S. special steel manufacturing company, at the end of last month, providing $9.4 million (approximately 13.1 billion won), and decided to acquire redeemable preferred shares issued by a steel company established in Saudi Arabia in partnership with Aramco, amounting to approximately $27.1 million (approximately 37.7 billion won).
SeAH Group is building a seamless tube (SMLS Tube) production plant in Vietnam since 2022 and producing and selling products through its local subsidiary, while it is constructing a stainless steel seamless plant through a joint venture in Saudi Arabia. In the United States, it plans to establish a special alloys production base to target demand industries such as energy and aerospace.
SeAH Group aims to stabilize its global operations and expand its markets through investments in constructing facilities. As part of this, it also announced on the 13th that it acquired redeemable preferred shares worth 93.4 billion won from SeAH Wind, a UK offshore wind subsidiary, to invest in additional facility infrastructure for business expansion and quality improvement.
Not only SeAH Group but also Hyundai Steel and POSCO Group are turning their attention to overseas investments. Hyundai Steel previously announced plans to build an electric arc furnace steel mill in Louisiana, USA, to produce automotive steel sheets. In addition, POSCO Group is also considering equity investments. The investment scale for the steel mill amounts to $5.8 billion (approximately 8.5 trillion won).
There are voices in the steel industry calling for government support. The POSCO Group labor union solidarity issued a statement on the 14th demanding government support, which included a reduction in industrial electricity rates, investment in carbon neutrality technology development in the steel industry, and responses to low-priced steel from China. Earlier, the Hyundai Steel union also opposed the company’s investment in the U.S. steel mill and actively demanded investment in domestic plants and talent acquisition.