Leapfrogging Possibilities For Sustainable Consumption and ...

To appreciate the significance of this leapfrogging, it is important to compare the number
of years South Korea took to modernize its iron and steel industry relative to other
countries and regions. For South Korea, Japan, US, Europe (excluding UK) and UK this
amounted to less than two decades, three decades, five decades, a century and two
centuries respectively 51 .
Steel consumption per capita is considered as one indication of a country’s prosperity,
with large steel consumption per capita as a sign of economic prosperity. The world
average for apparent steel consumption per capita in 1999 was 138.2kg. In general, the
more industrialised countries utilised between 250kg and 600kg of steel per capita. The
figure for South Korea is 757kg per capita.
The steel industry in the country grew in the 1970s after the government constructed the
Pohang Iron and Steel Company (POSCO) mill in less than three years to service Seoul's
rapidly growing automobile, shipbuilding, and construction industries. In 1988, South
Korea's steel industry included 200 steel companies. In 1989, South Korea was the
world's tenth largest steel producer, accounting for 2.3 percent of world steel production.
South Korea continued to expand crude steel production of 19.3 million tons in 1988. In
2000, the country was the sixth largest producer of steel in the world with 43.1 million
tons. POSCO is currently the third largest producer of steel in the world. Prior to the
establishment of the company, South Korea barely had any steel-making capabilities at
all with some production from small and obsolete furnaces. POSCO as the most efficient
steel producer, was able to connect all subsystems covering the delivery of coke and ore,
to the blast furnace, and on through casting and rolling in such a way that all sources of
inefficiency are reduced.
Socio-economic benefits of this advancement include the consequence of developing
other manufacturing industries that helped create jobs and economic growth. The iron
and steel forms the first backbone of the South Korean economy for years to come.
Today, South Korea is the world's largest shipbuilder with multinational enterprises such
as Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries. The car manufacturing
industry has grown equally rapidly competing the top established global car brands today,
lead by making the country the world's 5th largest car manufacturing nation.
Prior to the development of the iron and steel sector, the GDP per capita in South Korea
has grown from only $100 in 1963 to a record of $10,000 in 1995 in less than 40 years to
a fully developed $25,000 in 2007.
Reduced emissions and other indirect damages on the environment associated with the
efficiency of this energy-intensive industry are among the environmental benefits of the
South Korean leap.
51 Chen et al (2004)
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