South Korea’s leading steel maker Posco signed a preliminary agreement with Colombian energy developers Blue Pacific and Fanalca to form two joint ventures.
Posco hopes to establish a company jointly with Blue Pacific Assets, part of the Pacific Rubiales group, to develop iron and carbon projects. According to the South Korean company, the alliance will be formalized later this year.
The agreement signed with Fanalca is for the production of steel tubes to make oil pipelines. The memorandum of understanding foresees the creation of a pipe factory with production capacity of 220,462 tons.
President Juan Manuel Santos, who currently on a state visit to South Korea, was present at the signing. The Colombian head of state lamented the poor condition of Colombian infrastructure.
“Our bottleneck has been that we were not able to have adequate infrastructure to keep up with the growth of the petroleum, gas and other industries,” Santos said. “Our roads need important investment to make the country more competitive … We need good investment, good infrastructure and Korea has everything to offer to us.”