The new year of 2022, the year of the tiger, has dawned.
I’d like to wish all of our executives and employees, as well as all of your families, health, happiness, and hope in the new year. I’d also like to extend a new year’s greeting filled with deep gratitude to our shareholders and the executives and employees of our partner companies and affiliates.
Dear Hyundai Steel associates, even though we started last year with a message wishing for a quick end to the COVID crisis, as we head into a new year, the situation unfortunately remains the same, with the same restrictions and threats to our daily lives. We sincerely hope that the situation will stabilize and that everything will return to how it was before the pandemic.
Even during this time of instability and uncertainty worldwide due to the pandemic, last year the steel industry showed signs of recovery for the first time in a long while. Our company made great improvements in terms of business performance, providing us with a strong foundation for future growth and development.
I believe that these results were made possible not only because of changes in the external environment but also because of your steadfast dedication and efforts in these trying times. I would like to once again express my deep gratitude to all Hyundai Steel executives and employees.
However, no one can be certain as to how long this precarious market situation will continue.
Steel prices have been gradually decreasing after peaking in the third quarter of last year, and the business environment surrounding the steel industry has remained highly unpredictable due to a variety of factors such as paradigm changes in demand, expanded trade regulations, and the acceleration of carbon neutrality.
We are at a point where, more than ever before, we need to be highly sensitive to the changing trends of the business environment and come up with appropriate countermeasures.
Therefore, we need to break free from our previous trajectory of pursuing growth and, in 2022, seek to firmly establish ourselves as an “eco-friendly steel company of sustainable development” in order to prepare for the future. I believe this shift can be achieved by implementing the following three strategies.
First, we must restructure our corporate business with a focus on future electrification. Changes in the industry paradigm are being accelerated, and the car industry is at the forefront of these changes. The concept of human movement is being fundamentally transformed, going beyond the transitory realm of motor energy to extend to the fields of electricity and hydrogen.
In light of these changes, we must focus our attention on expanding our business endeavors related to mobility parts and discovering high-value state-of-the art materials, as we pursue our role in the industry and uphold our responsibilities.
Second, we must establish a foundation of carbon neutrality. Carbon neutrality is at the forefront of current changes in the industry paradigm and is where shifts in social values meet and merge. Today, the realization of carbon neutrality is urgently needed for human sustainability.
By establishing a low carbon production system while also securing low carbon raw material application technologies, we will seek to meet the needs of the modern era, while also building the foundation needed to achieve our net-zero goal by 2050, ultimately transitioning to an energy system based on carbon neutrality.
Third, we must pursue specialization to secure a foothold for our domestic and overseas businesses. Changes in the supply chain triggered by carbon neutrality and trade barriers are transforming the existing business terrain and creating new processes for everything from material supply and product manufacturing to market demands and logistics.
In order to achieve our goals, we must face our internal situation and the external market environment head-on and seek the best measures in response. In addition to securing optimal business footholds in markets around the world, we must also focus on paving new ways to meet the demands that are arising in these changing times.
Along with these strategies, I would also like to once again emphasize the value of safety.
Even aside from the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (SAPA) that will go into effect starting from this year, the meaning and value of safety has shifted, making safety a necessary element in corporate management as well as an essential virtue across all areas of society.
I would like to ask all of you to always consider your actions and whether they reflect our value of safety not only in the workplace but also in our daily lives. I would also like to ask you to familiarize yourselves with the true meaning of autonomous safety culture by not only looking after your own safety but also promoting the safety of others.
Dear valued associates,
Standard social values are changing more deeply and rapidly than ever before, and the social calling of companies continues to expand in response.
There are now higher criteria being used to determine the role of a company, going beyond the company’s assets and job creation, and instead encompassing the extent to which the company’s overall business activities align with the values of society and whether or not the company follows through with its goals.
I would like to ask you to consider whether the goals that govern your work duties and lives correspond with public values, and to build the knowledge and culture needed to achieve your goals in daily life.
There is a famous idiom in Chinese classic poetry, known as Shijing, that says: “When crossing a river, if the water is deep, pull your clothes up to your waist; if the water is shallow, pull your trousers up to your knees.” This means that we need to take different measures based on the situations that we face.
With today’s rapidly progressing industry structure and changes in social values, we cannot continue to use the same measures that we used in the past, and we would be greatly mistaken if we thought that the measures of today could still be used tomorrow.
Just like in the famous Chinese saying, we need to examine the situations around us in a calm, collected fashion and take action by facing reality with a humble mind in order to achieve breakthroughs in this age where change has become the norm.
As we start a brand new year, I hope you consider the paths that we need to take and encourage each other with new hope.
I wish you and your families health and happiness in the new year ahead.
January 3, 2022
An Tong-il
President & CEO