June 18, 2025 - POSCO Holdings has decided to withdraw from its ongoing coking coal business in West Virginia, United States. This decision appears to be the result of comprehensive considerations, including the large-scale mine fire that occurred in 2022 and the need to strengthen ESG management.

According to Digital Daily and industry sources on June 18, POSCO has decided to halt additional investments in the Longview Mine project in West Virginia, which was being operated through its U.S. joint venture NCR. This mine had completely suspended production due to a major fire on July 1, 2022.

A POSCO official stated, “We have decided to discontinue additional investments in the NCR business, which we participated in through our Canadian subsidiary.” He explained, “This decision is the result of a multi-faceted review of not only the business inferiority due to the required large-scale recovery investment costs, including simple loss avoidance, but also sustainability and business feasibility from an ESG perspective.”

As a result of this decision, POSCO’s stake in NCR is expected to decrease, and the company is likely to gradually withdraw from the business. NCR is a joint venture co-invested by four companies: AMCI (42.375%), Japan’s Itochu Corp. (25.0%), POSCO (22.05%), and JAZ (10.575%).

The Longview Mine fire dealt a significant financial blow to POSCO. In its performance announcement earlier this year, the company reported a loss of 220.2 billion won due to this incident.

On March 24, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of West Virginia approved Century Mining’s restructuring plan, which officially took effect on June 13. However, POSCO has decided not to participate further in this restructuring plan.

This situation is evaluated as a case that clearly demonstrates the risks of overseas resource development projects. It is expected that POSCO will formulate its future resource development strategy more cautiously in light of this incident.

Moving forward, POSCO will need to address challenges such as handling NCR shares, recovering investments, and establishing alternative supply chains. Industry observers speculate that POSCO will focus on securing coking coal from relatively stable markets like Australia or Indonesia, rather than the United States.