OREANDA-NEWS. August 01, 2014. POSCO held a ceremony for the closing of 1st FINEX Plant at Pohang Steelworks.

As FINEX 3rd Plant capable of producing 2 million tons per year is put into normal operation and development of technology using 1st FINEX Plant is completed, POSCO decided to close the plant.

From November 14th, 1995 when it was first put into operation to its last day, 1st FINEX Plant has produced about 12 million tons of molten metal throughout 18 years and 7 months.

FINEX is an innovative iron and steel making technology that has changed the conventional paradigm of `producing molten metal in a blast furnace.` It is designed to produce molten metal using cheap, powder-type iron ore and bituminous coal and as a result, saves much in investment and fuel processing costs while reducing the amount of polluting substances produced.

1st FINEX Plant was particularly the basis of technological innovation and scale-up, leading advancement of innovative iron-making technologies. It succeeded in developing more than 20 key technologies, including charging material distribution control, pulverized coal injection and low-grade material test through R&D (research and development) and test while on stream, and obtained about 180 operation technologies. Plus, it developed its own HCI (Hot Compacted Iron) machine, 3-layered flow path operating technology and soft raw material mixing and charging technologies and successfully deployed on 2nd and 3rd FINEX plants.

Based on its knowhow and technologies that it obtained through 1st FINEX Plant, a demo plant with the annual production capacity of 600 thousand tons, POSCO deployed 2nd FINEX Plant capable of producing 1.5 million tons in 2007. The 2 million ton-3rd FINEX Plant, which began construction in June 2011, went on-stream after the lighting-up ceremony in January 2014. Stability and advanced technologies of FINEX lead to plant expansion.

POSCO is considering either recycling 1st FINEX Plant or selling it to an overseas company. Because it is now possible to examine the inside of the smelting furnace before the plant is disassembled, POSCO plans to gradually cool down the furnace and check things that could not be seen while the plant was in operation. POSCO will examine how coal briquettes and iron ore react, and how molten iron and slag are produced using low-grade ore and coal to further improve operation of 2nd and 3rd plants and advance FINEX technology development.