SEOUL (Reuters) -A fire broke out at South Korean steelmaker POSCO’s plant in the southeastern city of Pohang on Tuesday, a POSCO spokesperson confirmed.
“A fire broke out at our Pohang steel plant – two factories at the plant were affected by the fire – and the fires have been put out,” said the POSCO spokesperson, adding that no casualties have been found and the company is assessing the damage.
The spokesperson said there was a byproduct gas release at the plant in the morning caused by a power outage due to a typhoon that has departed South Korea.
Typhoon Hinnamnor left South Korea on Tuesday after making landfall in the south, leaving thousands of people displaced and two dead, authorities said.
POSCO said in a statement that production and shipments at its Pohang steel plant had been suspended as the rain flooded significant parts of the plant.
While POSCO said it would try to normalise operations as soon as possible but did not provide a time for when it would resume production at the plant.
South Korea raised its typhoon alert to its highest level on Monday as approaching Typhoon Hinnamnor forced flight cancellations, the suspension of some business operations and the closure of schools.
POSCO said is halting operations at its production facilities including its furnaces until the typhoon passes.
(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi and Heekyong Yang; editing by Christopher Cushing and Jason Neely)
