Inauguration ceremony held on August 26...To begin commercial production of high purity rare gases from Q4 2025

POSCO Zhongtai Air Solution was launched on August 26 and will fully participate in the high purity rare gas production business.

POSCO Zhongtai Air Solution is a joint venture in which POSCO Holdings and Zhongtai Cryogenic Technology (hereinafter "Zhongtai") hold 75.1% and 24.9% of shares, respectively. Zhongtai is a company that specializes in gas-related facility production and engineering and is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The company has rare gas production facilities and specialty technologies in the area of gases such as air separation units.

High purity rare gases refers to Neon (Ne), Xenon (Xe), and Krypton (Kr) with a purity of 99.999%, which are usually used in high tech industries including semiconductors, displays, and satellite thrusters.

These rare gases exist in extremely small amounts, and can be produced only when there is a large air separation unit in a steel mill. Also, since the rare gases from large air separation units have a purity below 41%, they must go through a high purity refining process to be used in semiconductor production.

Until now, high purity rare gases have mainly been imported from overseas such as from the United States, China, and Ukraine. Since POSCO is the only domestic company with large air separation units, it has a favorable precondition for producing high purity rare gases.

POSCO Zhongtai Air Solution will begin the construction of a high purity rare gas production plant on a 39000m2 site south of Gwangyang DongHoAn in November of this year. It plans to begin commercial production in Q4 2025. The company decided to supply high purity rare gases produced here to domestic and foreign semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Intel.

POSCO Zhongtai Air Solution is expected to localize high purity rare gases for semiconductors, which were mostly dependent on imports, and lead the stabilization of the supply chain with this business. In addition, by processing rare gases from large air separation units into high-profit products, it is anticipated to expand the industrial gas business portfolio of the POSCO Group.

POSCO Zhongtai Air Solution president Sun-gu Jeong said, "Our company started off from POSCO's industrial gas business division and is equipped with sufficient capacity to build rare gas facilities. We are planning to safely establish high purity rare gas production facilities and production systems."

▲POSCO Zhongtai Air Solution employees are seen in a commemorative photo to mark its foundation on August 26. (Photo) Fourth from the left, POSCO Zhongtai Air Solution President Sun-gu Jeong.