OREANDA-NEWS. August 06, 2014. CEO Oh-Joon Kwon visited the raw material project sites in which POSCO is investing in Australia. Kwon examined the current issues faced by the project sites and mapped out a plan to reinforce the company`s competitiveness in the steel industry by enhancing POSCO`s self-sufficiency in raw materials.

Kwon personally visited the Hume Coal project site located in New South Wales (NSW) in Southeastern Australia on July 16, and offered employees words of encouragement. On the 21st he visited the Roy Hill project site in Western Australia to inspect progress there.

The Roy Hill mining project is POSCO`s major overseas raw material mining project, with POSCO having acquired a 12.5% stake to secure a stable supply of high-quality iron ore. Construction work remains ongoing with the halfway mark fast approaching; the first shipment is due in the latter half of 2015. The Roy Hill mine is estimated to contain 2.3 billion tons of high-quality iron ore (Fe 61%) reserves, and the goal is to produce 55 million tons annually.

``I`m really proud of the systematic and smooth progress we have achieved in this large-scale mining project, particularly given its incalculable reserves,`` said Kwon during his visit to the Roy Hill mine. ``I`d like to thank all staff for their work on this project, especially the Roy Hill project executives and employees, the major shareholder Hancock, and other shareholders such as POSCO, Marubeni and CSC for their efforts. The Roy Hill mine is POSCO`s most important asset for raw materials, and POSCO will provide unwavering support with the remaining construction.``

On behalf of Korean business, Kwon attended the B20 that ran in Sydney, Australia, for two days from July 17, and exchanged ideas with key businesspeople from G20 member countries on the topic of ``promoting strong and flexible global economic growth and employment outcomes``.

There were four taskforces ----- Infrastructure & Investment, Trade, Human Capital and Financing Growth ----- with POSCO attending as a member of the Trade taskforce to discuss the importance of fair and transparent trade in global economic growth.

The B20 is hosted independently from the G20 Leaders Summit in order to prepare policy recommendations for each taskforce in the world economy and submit them to the G20. This year, the G20 Leaders Summit will take place in mid-November in Brisbane, Australia.

Kwon attended the Australian Investment Forum hosted by the Australian government on July 19 to exchange ideas about resources and energy. The conference was attended by the Australian Minister for Industry, the CEO of world-renowned materials company BHP Billiton, the CEO of Rio Tinto, and the CEOs of other key materials and energy-related companies.

POSCO is in fact one of Australia`s single-biggest corporate buyers. It purchased 6 billion dollars` worth of raw materials in 2013 from Australia, representing 29.1% of Australia`s exports to Korea.

In his role of Korean Chairman of the Australia-Korea Business Council, Kwon met with the Australian Chairman Mark Bale and agreed to work together to produce significant results by selecting substantial and specific themes.

Moreover, as Chairman of the Business Council, Kwon met with Mike Baird, Premier of New South Wales, to discuss about cooperating with POSCO, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), and Korea Resources Corporation for investment in New South Wales. He also invited Baird to the annual joint meeting of the Australia-Korea Business Council.