현대제철은 차세대 인프라 구축을 위한 중대형 산업자재 공급을 위해 미국 AI 데이터센터 및 전력망 시장을 전략적으로 공략하고 있다.
At the Sept. 4 groundbreaking ceremony for the Hyundai Steel-POSCO Louisiana electric arc furnace steel mill in Donaldsonville, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun addressed reporters. Hyundai Steel is poised to accelerate its expansion into advanced U.S. manufacturing markets—including artificial intelligence data centers, power infrastructure, and local mobility—by scaling up domestic production capacity. Industry officials noted on the 6th that the company plans to leverage the Louisiana facility as a springboard to secure contracts not only for high-value automotive steel sheets but also for critical infrastructure projects such as AI data centers, semiconductor fabrication plants, and power grids.
To capitalize on this shift, Hyundai Steel established a next-generation power infrastructure task force in March, aimed at strengthening its capacity to meet demand from emerging sectors requiring premium steel products. The company’s sales strategy for power infrastructure steel rests on three core pillars: data centers, transmission towers, and energy storage systems. According to industry sources, Hyundai Steel has already secured orders for more than 30,000 tons of steel across seven new data centers this year. Looking ahead, the company aims to more than quadruple its sales volume in these three infrastructure segments, targeting 400,000 tons by 2030 compared to approximately 90,000 tons this year.
The United States represents the world’s most active market for advanced infrastructure development, particularly in the AI data center sector. Capital expenditure on U.S. AI data centers is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 22%, rising from $120 billion in 2024 to about $400 billion by 2030, according to global consulting firm McKinsey & Company. This surge in investment is expected to generate 80 to 100 gigawatts of new power demand nationwide. Industry officials note that each one-gigawatt data center typically requires approximately 200,000 tons of steel.
The rapid growth of American infrastructure demand is already evident in trade flows. Despite a 50% tariff on imported steel, Korean rebar shipments to the U.S. surged to 484,000 tons in the first half of this year, more than 33 times the 14,557 tons shipped in the same period a year earlier. Establishing the Louisiana mill will provide Hyundai Steel with a strategic advantage, allowing the company to sidestep volatile U.S. tariff risk while positioning itself to capture a larger share of this expanding market.