09:00-09:40, Monday, October 16, 2023     The Paris agreement, entered into force in 2016 as a legally binding international treaty on climate change, aims to limit global warming to well below 2℃, preferably to 1.5℃ compared to pre-industrial levels. Global efforts are being made to achieve carbon neutrality, which is the core activity to limit global warming. POSCO, which discharges the second-largest amount of carbon in South Korea, faces a big challenge to reduce carbon emission along with other steelmakers. In particular, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which will be introduced from 2026, is expected to pose a major threat to Korean steelmakers, since we still have a long way to reach the goal. We declared ‘POSCO 2050 carbon neutrality’ in December 2020 as a response to carbon neutrality demands. In order to achieve the goal, POSCO will introduce electric arc furnace (EAF) as intermediate stage, along with the efforts of improving efficiency of existing facilities. Carbon neutrality is scheduled to achieve green steel production by 2050, which will involve the development of Hydrogen reduction (HyREX) technology. Galvanizing lines and products are required to play a part as well in order to acquire carbon neutrality. Improving automotive fuel efficiency by increasing the strength of steel sheet has been focused so far, but future application of carbon neutral technology and customers' demands require further technological developments. POSCO is paying attention to the following research areas regarding in galvanizing lines and products. A few surface improvement technologies are under development to enhance zinc coating wettability and to suppress liquid metal embrittlement (LME) for advanced high-strength steel. Advancement of upstream technologies for carbon neutrality can affect galvanizing processes and products. Increasing adoption of EAF in iron making process increases the content of impurities such as Cu, Ni, Cr, etc, which may degrade mechanical properties and lower surface quality of galvanized steel sheets. We are trying several approaches in order to resolve this issue. High corrosion-resistant galvanized steel sheets containing Mg and Al in the galvanizing layer can contribute to carbon reduction by increasing the lifespan of galvanized steel products. A series of high corrosion-resistant galvanized steel sheets with commercial brand name of PosMAC® were developed by POSCO. Following PosMAC® 1.5 and PosMAC® 3.0, PosMAC® Super was successfully launched last year and much broader industrial applications are expected along with carbon reduction. Global research efforts and cooperations are needed to expedite the development of these technologies. We will share these technical trend and our research efforts of galvanizing processes and products in this presentation.   Sedon Choo Head of Technical Research Lab, POSCO, Korea Sedon Choo has been the Senior Executive Vice President of POSCO since 2022 and is currently the head of Technical Research Lab. After graduating from Seoul National University (Metallurgy, BS) and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Mat Sci. & Eng., MS & PhD) began working as a researcher at POSLAB (POSCO Technical Research Lab) in 1993. In 2003, he led the Thick-plate Design team in Marketing Division and in 2009 became Group Leader of Technical Planning Group. In 2011, he returned to POSLAB in Gwangyang as a Group Leader of Thin-plate Research Group and became the Head of Gwangyang Research Lab (Senior Vice President) in 2015. Later, he also served as the Head of Pohang Research Lab and became the Head (Executive Vice President) of Energy and Shipbuilding Steel Marketing Office in 2016. After working as the Head of Steel Solution Marketing Office in 2018 he was the Head of Steel Solution Research Lab in Incheon. He was awarded the official commendation from the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy in 2007. He was also awarded the Steel Technical Creative Award by POSCO in 2012 and Steel Technical Innovation Award in 2013. In 2014, he won the Technical Award from the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials.     10:00-10:40, Monday, October 16, 2023     The development and application of zinc and zinc alloy coated steel sheets of China are overviewed in recent years. Electrification is the most important technical route for carbon reduction in the automobile industry, the penetration rate of electric vehicles in China has reached about 26% In 2022. With the rapid development of automobile electrification in China, a series of changes have taken place in automobile materials, and the challenges faced by steel makers are analyzed. Lightweighting is still the development direction of electric vehicle, the requirements for advanced high strength steel (AHSS) are increasing more and more, such as third-generation zinc and zinc alloy-coated steels, hot dip galvanized steel sheets with strength of 1200MPa and above and Aluminium silicon press hardening steels. However, there are some key barriers to adoption of advanced zinc-coated steels, such as liquid metal embrittlement (LME) issue in resistance spot welding (RSW), Hydrogen embrittlement (HE) and welding issues. Solutions to these problems and some Innovative technology related to hot dip galvanized steel sheets are discussed. In recent years, the demand for low carbon emission steel sheets from automobile factories is increasing, how to reduce carbon emissions from steel processing is the main challenge. As the main automotive steels supplier, Baosteel automotive steel sheets carbon neutrality routes and recent activities of low carbon emission galvanized sheet developed by electric arc furnace (EAF) process are shared in this paper   Li Wang Baosteel Iron & Steel Co. Ltd., China Li Wang, Ph.D, Chief Engineering Scientist at R&D institute of Baosteel, Deputy Director of State Key Laboratory of Development and Application Technology of Automotive Steels, focus on the research and development of automotive steel sheets for more than 30 years.     10:40-11:20, Monday, October 16, 2023     Since the world has been focusing on realizing the sustainability of human activities these days, the demands for suppressing CO2 emission and the environmental protection have been getting stronger. Therefore, all industrial companies have been making huge efforts to respond to these global requests. One of the typical topics is how we can reduce huge CO2 emission from automobile production to the end of the use all over the world. Now, the automobile and steel manufactures are struggling with the reduction of the automotive body weight applying the high-strength steel sheets (HSSs) for body structural parts. However, the alloying elements in HSSs affects their productivities, and issues such as hydrogen embrittlement or liquid metal embrittlement (LME) during spot welding would become more serious. Another typical field is how we can achieve the longer life of products, such as electric appliances and infrastructures. For the purpose, high anti-corrosion coatings have been focused and developed. In the sense, the coatings without toxic elements like hexavalent chromium are also interesting. In this presentation, the latest research activity, product development and applications of zinc coatings will be outlined focusing on each of applications for automobile, electric appliances, and infrastructures. The progress of corrosion evaluation will be also reviewed.   Yasunobu Nagataki JFE Steel Corporation, Japan Dr. Yasunobu NAGATAKI started his job at JFE Steel Corporation (former NKK) in 1989, as a researcher of high-strength steel sheets for automobile use. His R&D work had mainly focused on developing high-performance ultra-high-strength steel sheets to reduce automobile body weight as well as zinc coatings to them for the anti-corrosion, especially by galvannealing. His continuous interest had been how both excellent mechanical properties and superior anti-corrosion could be achieved when alloying elements were contained in the steel. He had studied abroad at Northwestern University in the U.S.A. as a visiting researcher to expand his metallurgical background from 1996 to 1998, and earned a doctor degree as his study related to the martensite structure of steels at Tohoku University in 2013. During 2015 to 2018, he had worked for the research departments of both sheet products and coated sheet products as a general manager. Since 2018 he had been the assistant director of Steel Research Laboratory for 4 years, and he is now Fellow, one Executive of JFE Steel Corporation.     09:00-09:40, Tuesday, October 17, 2023     The European steel market is facing major economic and technological challenges. After years of low prices due to a steel surplus from imports on the European market, prices went up to record heights in 2021. However, recently, the spread between prices and raw materials & energy costs is again under pressure due to geopolitical instabilities and the ensuing European energy crisis. This, combined with a decreased steel demand due to global shortages of electronic components has put a strain on the European steel industry. Yet, in this declining macro-economic climate, the European steel industry needs to make large investments to reduce CO2 emissions via decarbonization and increased circularity. The transition from blast furnace to direct-reduced iron combined with electric furnaces and increased circularity with high recycled content will yield increased residuals in the steel arriving at our galvanizing lines. This may compromise galvanizability, contaminate the zinc bath, or affect mechanical properties. Like at the heavy end, the hot-dip galvanizing lines too are facing innovations with the transition from fossil-fuel to hydrogen and renewable-energy. All this to be seen against the backdrop of a continuous strive for flexibility to accommodate new products, cope with volatile markets, and shift towards industry 4.0 with increased online monitoring of process stability and product quality. The ambition for a sustainable product life-cycle, not only impacts steel and coating technologies, but also affects steel developments for our customers that too face the challenges of decarburization. This holds for our automotive customers with the development of e-mobility and ensuing implications for materials selection. New ultra and advanced high-strength steels will run through our galvanizing lines to provide cost-effective solutions that have to compete with alternative materials. Another sector, challenged by the decarburization is the engineering sector where changes in coating thickness and composition are foreseen. This presentation highlights some of the major European developments and challenges for galvanized steel, which are ultimately driven by our ambitions towards net-zero emissions in 2050 and a future in which galvanized steel remains the preferred material of choice for cost-effective and demanding solutions.   Marga Zuijderwijk Tata Steel, Netherlands Marga Zuijderwijk is a Principal Researcher at Tata Steel, working on galvanizing Advanced High Strength Steels. She studied Geology at Utrecht University, specializing in deformation processes and Electron Microscopy (SEM, TEM and EBSD). In 2002 she joined Tata Steel and worked in various projects for metallic coating development, AHSS surface characterization and line support for hot dip galvanizing. Since 2010 she is working on process control and gas-metal reactions for galvanizing. She was one of the “best paper” award winners in the online Galvatech Symposium 2021, which resulted in an invited speaker presentation at the Galvatech Highlight Symposium 2022 in Vienna.     09:40-10:20, Tuesday, October 17, 2023     Until recently, zinc-coated steel sheet technical developments were mainly driven by increasing demands for improved crashworthiness as well as decreased fuel consumption and related emissions achieved by reducing vehicle mass while simultaneously, maintaining acceptable durability and cost. Rapid growth in electric vehicle (EV) production, that has added significant battery mass to each vehicle, has continued the same drive to reduce body and structure mass to enable range improvement (distance between recharging). Additionally, crashworthiness in EV’s is now related to protection of occupants and the battery, including fire protection. At the same time, each major automaker has set zero carbon emission target dates, some as early as 2035, that place demands upon their suppliers to also meet these targets. This paper provides an overview of recent North American progress in meeting these challenges, and the opportunities of the future. Recent developments in new steel grades, with a focus on zinc-coated 3G and press hardened steel (PHS) grades, together with information on forming and joining developments, are described. Investigations related to unique challenges of coated PHS steels and their process influences variables will be also discussed. Examples of developments in real-time instrumentation and control of CGL sections that contribute to productivity and quality are summarized. The direction of efforts being taken to decarbonize the CGL are reviewed. Finally, the rapid growth of the industry in North America is summarized in an updated census of CGL’s.   Omar Garcia-Rincon R&D Center TERNIUM, Mexico Omar Garcia-Rincon is R&D Senior Manager responsible for the Metallurgy Department in TERNIUM Mexico. PhD with over fifteen years’ experience in physical and mechanical metallurgy of steel developing and optimizing coated, hot and cold rolled sheet products for several markets including automotive and energy.