Lifting the railroad transportation ratio to 8% by 2006 from the current 3% with the aim to improve delivery period POSCO is planning to greatly increase its railroad transportation of steel productsin order to improve customer satisfaction by shortening of delivery time. POSCO plans to enlarge its railroad transportation volume of steel products to 1.6 million tons per year by 2006 from the present 700,000 tons, that is, 400,000 tons of its Pohang Works and 300,000 tons of Gwangyang Works by activating its transport base and add storage space at its steelworks so that the rate of railway transportation could increase to 8% from the current 3%. POSCO is scheduled to supply 600,000 tons of steel products per year from Gwangyang Works to customers located in the capital region such as Seoul, Suwon and Ansan stably by breathing life into the operation of Bukok railway transport base which began to operate at the end of last year to add 900,000 tons of steel products to the railway transportation. In addition, the company plans to be build up a system for transporting cargoes directly on railways without inland trucking for transit by arranging a space used exclusively for railway cargo collection base capable of handling another 300,000 tons within Pohang Works in September in addition to the existing 400,000 tons. POSCO, in transporting steel products, will actively operate in the future the cargo base used exclusively for railway transportation and the cargo collection center solely for railway purposes, and accordingly, the delivery time for customers in the capital region, would become to 2 days from the existing 5 days by sea transportation together with a cut of 1 billion won per year in customers' burden for logistic cost. jhkwak@snmnews.com