POSCO chief to visit 3 African countries for mines

SEOUL, June 11 (Yonhap) -- POSCO chief executive Chung Joon-yang left for Africa
on Friday to discuss possible investments in mines that produce coal and other
raw materials, company officials said.
Chung plans to visit the Kalahari mine, located in the Northern Cape area in
South Africa. In April this year, POSCO acquired a 13 percent stake in the
manganese mine for US$200 million.
The CEO will also visit Mozambique and Zimbabwe, where he will discuss possible
investment in coal mines, according to them.
POSCO, the world's fourth-largest steelmaker, has been seeking to buy coal and
iron ore mines in countries such as Australia, Canada and Brazil in a bid to
secure stable supplies of these materials used to make steel products.
POSCO's self-sufficiency ratio of key raw materials is estimated at 18.3 percent
this year, well below the world's leading steelmaker Arcelor Mittal's 46 percent.
The steelmaker said it is seeking to push up its self-sufficiency ratio to over
50 percent by 2014.
sam@yna.co.kr
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