POSCO, South Korea’s leading steelmaker, said Wednesday it will be supplying lightweight magnesium sheets to Porsche for the German sports carmaker’s highest-performance model, the 911 GT3 RS.

POSCO said the material will be used for the roof of the new GT3 RS, the first body adoption of the material that has been used for a limited number of smaller car parts.

“We expect the demand for auto parts using magnesium will continue to grow at a fast pace,” POSCO said in a statement.
 

POSCO’s magnesium sheet was previously used for Renault’s concept model Ecolab at last year’s Paris Motor Show, but Porsche is the first to use it for mass production.

The GT3 RS made its debut at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show on March 3. The magnesium roof makes the car about 10 kilograms lighter than the standard GT3 sibling and run faster and safer with a lower center of gravity.

The car churns out a staggering 500 horsepower and bristles from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 3.3 seconds and to 200 kilometers per hour in 10.9 seconds.

The car is currently available for order starting from 131,296 pounds ($197,000) with deliveries to begin in May.

Manufacturers of planes, trains and automobiles have been steadily replacing aluminum with magnesium in its efforts to use the lightest usable structural metal. Magnesium has about 30 percent less density than aluminum and a quarter of steel, offering more options for aerospace and automotive applications.

Last year, Renault Samsung used magnesium sheets for the backseat and trunk of its new SM7 model.

Boeing also uses magnesium in a number of commercial aircraft from wing components to parts of the doors, on the B707, B727, B737 and B747.

In step with the global trend, POSCO began research and development on magnesium sheets in 2007, finding its competitive edge in price and technology.

By Suk Gee-hyun (monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)