OREANDA-NEWS. August 29, 2013. POSCO held the `25th Annual POSCO Family Technology Conference` for two days starting at POSTECH.

The POSCO Family Technology Conference has been held annually since 1989, when it was originally started to promote steel technology development desire and heighten technology competitiveness, and has become the largest festival and venue for technology discussions of POSCO Family technicians.

At this year`s conference, approximately 2,000 members attended from POSCO along with family companies, client companies, supplying companies, external partners, and domestic universities and research institutions participating in invitational lectures and technology debates. A total of 262 papers were presented in 54 sessions, marking 6,209 papers presented to date since the conference first started.

CEO Chung Joonyang in his opening speech emphasized, ``Intense competition is inevitable for survival in the coming years in the steel industry with the global economic recession, steel industry stagnation, and over-supply,`` and added that to overcome this crisis, ``Exclusive technological capabilities must be secured to secure global technology competitiveness, and based on the POSCO founding philosophy of creating from nothing, develop unique technologies that create customer value and lead the era of creative economy.``

Following, Deputy General Manager Dong Rong Hua of China`s Chongqing Iron & Steel Group presented a keynote speech on the theme, `China`s Steel Industry Development Prospect and Next Generation Integrated Steelworks Plan.`

In session lectures, 29 specialists from Korea and abroad including Columbia University Professor Park Ahyeong, who presented `Collection, usage, and storage of carbon for sustainable energy,` were invited to discuss various subjects on steel and non-steel fields.

Meanwhile, POSCO presented the `POSCO Family Technology Award` to those responsible for tasks that achieved excellent results by pushing to develop POSCO`s unique technologies prior to the start of the event.

Also, on August 19th, POSCO and family company officers participated in the `POSCO Family Technology Officer Debate,` discussing `steel technology strategy in response to mid- to long-term management environments` and `plans to increase success rate of commercializing new growth technologies.`