On July 8, technical specialists and senior business representatives from POSCO and POSCO E&C visited the Institute of Engineering Technology,USTB (IET,USTB) for a two-day technical exchange forum and on-site production line inspection. He Anrui, Party Secretary ofIET and Chairman of DRI, attended the forum, which was hosted by Liu Chao, Deputy Director of the Process Control Department of DRI.

He Anrui extended a warm welcome to the POSCO delegation and systematically introducedIET’s development history, core business layout and engineering commercialization achievements. He noted that IET has decades of deep engagement in the metallurgical sector, establishing a full-chain innovation system covering material R&D, process equipment, intelligent inspection, precision control and intelligent manufacturing, with a large portfolio of replicable and scalable successful engineering cases in high-efficiency strip rolling and intelligent production management. As one of the world’s most competitive iron and steel enterprises, POSCO boasts highly complementary technical strengths and business scenarios withIET. Against the backdrop of accelerated global transformation of the iron and steel industry toward high-end manufacturing, intelligence, low-carbon development and integrated innovation, he expressed hope that this exchange would facilitate deeper cross-border technical collaboration, unblock the full chain of "R&D – engineering – industrialization", jointly build a benchmark for international metallurgical technical cooperation, and empower high-quality development of the iron and steel industries in China and South Korea through process innovation and intelligent technologies.

POSCO’s technical specialists spoke highly of IET’s profound technical accumulation and engineering transformation capabilities in metallurgy. They stated that POSCO is continuously advancing high-end product development and digital intelligent retrofitting of production lines. This exchange aimed to conduct in-depth research intoIET’s technical accumulation and practical application results in strip shape control, with expectations to establish a long-term cooperation mechanism based on both parties’ technical strengths, jointly tackle common industry technical challenges, and deliver cross-border demonstration projects for technology application.

During the forum, Liu Chao introduced PFEC, a hot continuous rolling strip shape control system independently developed by IET, elaborating on core technical strengths including multi-functional roll profile design, high-precision strip shape models, intelligent diagnostic systems and systematic solutions for common strip shape challenges. The two sides held in-depth discussions centered on precision strip shape control and quality improvement of high-end plates, fully exchanging cutting-edge technical concepts and engineering practical experience and reaching consensus on multiple technical details.

On July 9, the POSCO delegation conducted an on-site visit of the 1780 hot continuous rolling line at Puyang Iron & Steel. This production line deploys a complete suite of high-precision rolling control systems and key technologies supplied by IET and DRI. The delegation observed the full intelligent production workflow on-site and held detailed exchanges with the on-site technical team regarding hot continuous rolling strip shape control, stable mass production of high-end plates and ultra-thin gauge products, accumulating real-world reference data for future technical cooperation.

Building on existing technical exchanges and cooperation between the two sides, this forum and on-site visit refined implementation pathways for joint research and development, laying a solid foundation for establishing a long-term stable international strategic partnership and advancing cross-border integrated industry-university-research collaborative innovation.

Guo Qiang, General Manager of DRI, met with the POSCO specialists during the exchange activities.