Leads Sustainability by Developing Railway Sleepers Combining Steelmaking Slag and Waste Plastics
POSCO Takes the Lead in Building a Robust Industrial Ecosystem Together with Its In-House Venture Companies
EOMTech, a POSCO in-house venture company, has successfully developed a next-generation railway sleeper by combining steelmaking byproduct slag with waste plastics. This achievement was realized through POSCO’s Performance-Sharing System, one of its shared-growth programs, and is being praised for accomplishing both environmental improvement and cost reduction simultaneously.
Founded in 2019 as part of POSCO’s first in-house venture cohort, EOMTech, under the leadership of CEO Young-jun Park, developed a composite material called “Slastic,” which uses slag and waste plastics as its primary components. In the process, the company maximized cost efficiency by replacing a portion of the expensive glass fiber materials traditionally used in railway sleepers with Slastic. In addition, Slastic sleepers are 100% recyclable, further enhancing their environmental value.
During the early stages of Slastic development, EOMTech faced challenges, including test failures caused by the extreme high-temperature and heavy-load conditions of steel plant environments. However, through continued R&D and technical collaboration with POSCO, the company redesigned the sleepers and ultimately succeeded in developing the Slastic composite material, which has since been applied at railway sites within POSCO’s Pohang Steelworks.
The success of this project is also being recognized as a case that simultaneously achieves the virtuous circulation of waste resources and improved durability of railway infrastructure.
CEO Young-jun Park stated, “Through the development of Slastic sleepers using steelmaking byproduct slag and waste plastics, EOMTech is helping to create a sustainable future,” adding, “Building on this technological capability, we plan to move forward with the development of a wider range of products.”
