A Research and Development Programme on Steel Sheets for Korean Automobile Industry

With the expansion of Korean steel industry over 10 million tonnes annual production capacity, demands for diverse high quality steels are rapidly growing. A research and development programme to establish the technology of melt refining, alloying and processing of HSLA steels is in progress under the government sponsorship. Particular emphasis is laid on the development of the formable HSLA steel sheets (i.e., dual-phase steels, rephosphorized steel sheets) for the automobile applications. Recent progress of such projects currently underway at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is outlined, following a brief review of Korean steel and motor vehicle industries.