POSCO has decided to join forces with Australian raw material supplier Fortescue Metal Group (FMG) for a green hydrogen project using renewable energy.

On December 14, POSCO CEO Jeong-Woo Choi met with Andrew Forrest, Chairman of FMG, at the POSCO Center in Seoul to discuss the vision and cooperation plan for the hydrogen business. FMG is the world’s fourth-largest iron ore supplier and the leading company in Australia’s green hydrogen business. It has declared to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.

POSCO and FMG agreed on POSCO participating in the green hydrogen production project using renewable energy that FMG is promoting in Australia. Both companies also agreed to cooperate in discovering additional projects in the future.

CEO Jeong-Woo Choi expressed his anticipation saying, “FMG is a long-term contract supplier that has been stably supplying iron ore to POSCO. If competitive green hydrogen can be produced with cooperation between the two companies and is introduced to Korea, the era of green hydrogen in Korea will be accelerated.”

Additionally, both companies agreed on adopting POSCO’s premium steel materials, like PosMAC, to eco-friendly power generation facilities, such as solar and wind power, that are required for producing green hydrogen by FMG. Under the agreement, POSCO imports FMG’s iron ore to make steel products, which will, in turn, be supplied for FMG’s solar power generation facilities to produce hydrogen. The system is considered to be the most sustainable business model that can be implemented by a steelmaker and a raw material supplier in the era of carbon neutrality.

The green hydrogen business cooperation with FMG is POSCO’s first step for its hydrogen business, promoted rapidly following the pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and the presentation of its vision for the hydrogen business to establish a hydrogen production capacity of 5 million tons.

The full press release from POSCO newsroom can be found Here: