POHANG — A project to apply artificial intelligence across the Pohang Steel Industrial Complex in North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea's main steelmaking base, is moving into full swing. Backers expect it to improve efficiency and productivity in steel production while helping small and mid-sized companies adopt AI, spreading manufacturing innovation across the region's steel industry.
The Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (RIST) said on the 18th that it recently held a kickoff meeting for the Pohang Smart Green AI Transformation (AX) Pilot Industrial Complex Project at Lahan Select in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, and has begun work. The Pohang complex was selected in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's competition for AX pilot industrial complexes, and a total of 23.5 billion won in central and local government funding will be invested over four years from this year through 2029.
The project focuses on supporting AI adoption at individual companies while building a foundation for manufacturing innovation across the entire complex. In particular, it will set up a joint support system so that small and mid-sized companies lacking in-house development capacity and investment capability can also use AI technology.
RIST is the lead organization, working with the city of Pohang, the Korea Industrial Complex Corporation, Pohang Technopark and the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology. A total of 15 institutions are taking part, including steelmakers such as Dongkuk Steel (460860) and Jeil Technos, universities including POSTECH and Seoul National University, and AI and information technology specialists such as Konan Technology and CodeVision.
During the project period, the Pohang complex will host an AX comprehensive support center to help small and mid-sized companies make the shift to AI, along with a convergence test bed linking virtual environments with actual production sites. The facilities will allow companies to verify whether AI technology can be applied on the shop floor and to move ahead with adoption.
Dongkuk Steel and Jeil Technos will lead the development and testing of lead AI models for use in steel production processes. A medium- to long-term master plan will also be drawn up to spread those models to other companies. The goal is to extend AI technology, now concentrated at a handful of companies, across the complex as a whole.
The project will be linked to an existing initiative to build a digitally based resource-circulation pilot complex. The plan is to promote recycling of byproducts generated during steel production and establish a resource-circulation system, pursuing better production efficiency and an environmentally friendly industrial complex at the same time.
"As the lead organization, we will draw together close cooperation among industry, academia, research institutes and government to complete an AI innovation model optimized for the steel industry," said Lee Kwan-hee, head of RIST's K-Steel Innovation Research Institute. "We will work to establish the Pohang complex as a model case for manufacturing AX in South Korea."