The crisis compelled the company to accept the government's offer of privatization and so, in 2001, POSCO became a privatized company. Enduring several scandals and plunges, POSCO also managed to lift itself up and continue through its challenges through the late 1990s and into the millennium. Its success came about by eliminating ventures in other fields and investing only in projects that were in line with its objectives as well as by merging subsidiaries. In 1999, therefore, it merged Pohang Steel Industries and Pohang Coated Steel into Pohang Steel Co. As well as starting three machinery units in the POSCO Machinery Company. A few years earlier too (in 1994), its first two subsidiaries were created - POSTEEL and POSTGRADE.

In order to cut prices and make their organization more lean and effective, they also formed partnerships with former competitors such as with Nippon Steel and China's Baoshan Iron & Steel Works in 2001.

Structure of POSCO.

POSCO is divided into two main groups,

1.POSTEEL -- that manages domestic sales and services

2. POSTGRADE - that deals with international trading of products.

Aside from these two units, POSCO has a further more than 24 subsidiaries (About.com).

Ever since the millennium the firm has and continues to expand in overseas ventures and has sunk its investment in foreign automotive and appliance production.

In 2010, POSCO had produced 35.4 million tonnes of crude steel becoming the world's third largest steel maker. Its steel mills are headquartered in South Korea, in Pohang and Gwangyang, and it also has merged with U.S. Steel, USS-POSCO, which is located in Pittsburg, California. Its key rivals include Tata Steel, Nippon Steel, the JFE group, and Bhushan steel.

Products

POSCO manufactures...

( http://metals.about.com/od/suppliersaz/a/Company-Profile-Posco.htm)
POSCO operates four major steel producing technologies in order to produce its work. These are: Finex (the cheapest method which produces molten iron directly from fine iron ore and coking coal); Strip Casting: (eliminates the slab-casting method and produces hot-rolled flat products directly from molten iron); Continuous Hot Rolling (steel slab is rolled using a solid-state joining method); and Poscote-C (flat-steel products are dried with resin in a rapid manner resulting in stronger products).

Sources

About.com. Metals. Company Profile: POSChttp://metals.about.com/od/suppliersaz/a/Company-Profile-Posco.htm

Fundign universe. POSCO

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/POSCO-company-History.html

World Steel Association. "Worldsteel top producers 2010."

http://worldsteel.org/statistics/top-producers.html

POSCO

http://www.posco.com/homepage/docs/eng2/jsp/s91a0010001i.jsp