POSCO of South Korea will start commercial sales of POSCO-refining magnesium ingot in mid-2012. The magnesium refinery is now under construction in Gangneung of Gangwon Province, South Korea toward completion scheduled in June 2012. POSCO plans to produce magnesium alloy as well as magnesium ingot at the refinery in future.
POSCO held a completion ceremony of a magnesium refining pilot plant in Gangneung on September 22. The pilot plant starts operation within October to improve refining processes and achieve stable output and quality. The firm purchases Dolomite inside South Korea while ferrosilicon is procured from China. POSCO adopts its original magnesium refining process based on steel making technology, introducing a vertical furnace for production of high grade magnesium ingot. The firm targets cost competitiveness as strong as Chinese producers by high productivity and minimized manpower. The first sample ingot will be delivered to the customers in South Korea and Japan in or after November. The refinery will start commercial operation in June 2012, which will produce magnesium ingot in the first phase and add magnesium alloy in the second phase. Magnesium alloy production is expected to start from AZ31 grade and the alloy grade could be widened step by step. POSCO images future output composition with magnesium ingot at 70% and magnesium alloy at 30%. In 2018 when the refinery is scheduled to achieve 100,000 tonnes of annual output capacity, about 70% of the output would be composed by magnesium alloy.