POSCO

KRX: 00549035Laggard· Provisional

0 followersSteel·Pohang, South Korea·Founded 1968

www.posco.com

South Korea's largest steelmaker and one of the world's top-five producers, with an active hydrogen reduction steelmaking (HyREX) R&D programme but current output overwhelmingly from blast furnaces.

35/100

Laggard· Provisional

ClimateTicker Green Score · how it's calculated

Greenwashing risk: mediumData confidence: high

Why it's on ClimateTicker

POSCO is one of the world's largest blast-furnace steelmakers, responsible for roughly 71–79 million tonnes of CO₂ annually, making it a significant industrial emitter today. The company has declared net-zero by 2050 and is investing in proprietary hydrogen reduction ironmaking (HyREX) with a 300,000-tonne demonstration plant commissioning targeted for 2028, but commercial deployment is a decade or more away and the core business remains coal-intensive. Investors should treat POSCO as a credible but early-stage decarbonisation transition story—not a clean company—where the gap between current emissions and long-term plans remains enormous.

laggardPOSCO generates revenue primarily by producing and selling flat and long steel products to automotive, shipbuilding, construction, and energy clients from large-scale integrated blast-furnace steelworks in Pohang and Gwangyang, South Korea, plus overseas mills. Secondary revenue streams include secondary battery materials, LNG trading, and engineering services via its holding-company subsidiaries.

Commitments & Certifications

CDP: B (Climate Change) / A- (Water Security) ↗other: TCFD Supporter — since 2020 ↗

Controversy & Greenwashing Watch

mediumPOSCO International coal exposure and climate risk

Solutions for Our Climate's 2025 report flagged that POSCO International, a key group subsidiary, carries material coal-related climate and financial risks that compound the holding company's overall climate risk profile beyond just steelmaking.source ↗

highUnion-busting at Turkish facility

Turkish courts ruled that POSCO unlawfully dismissed ~80 workers in 2017 for union activity, and the company subsequently refused mandatory government mediation and collective bargaining through 2023, contradicting its own ESG report claims on labour rights.source ↗

mediumHyREX commercialisation uncertainty and green hydrogen supply gap

POSCO's entire 2050 net-zero plan depends on HyREX being commercialised and on securing economical green hydrogen at scale, neither of which is assured; the demonstration plant won't commission until ~2028, and electricity/power supply for full-scale EAF and HyREX operations has been flagged as an unresolved government-level challenge.source ↗

mediumWeak near-term 2030 emissions target vs. 1.5°C pathway

POSCO's self-set 2030 target of only ~10% absolute reduction from a 2017–2019 baseline is far below what sector science-based pathways require, and the company has not submitted targets to SBTi for independent validation, raising credibility concerns relative to its carbon-neutral marketing.source ↗

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