Hyundai Steel said Monday its steel plates have been given an Environmental Product Declaration certification from Sweden, which would help the company respond effectively to the rigorous environmental regulations of Europe and facilitate exports to the continent.

An EPD is an independently verified and registered document that gives transparent and comparable information about what a product is made of and how it impacts the environment across its entire life cycle.

Hyundai Steel received the EPD from Sweden for its products including hot rolled steel sheets, cold rolled steel sheets, galvanized steel sheets and plates.

Last year, Hyundai Steel received an EPD for its section shape steel and reinforcing bars from a US-based safety certification company Underwriters Laboratories. They were the first Korean products made from an electric furnace to receive an EPD. The products that received the Swedish EPD this time were made in shaft furnaces.

“Across the world, movements are being made to utilize environmental factors as import regulations, exemplified by Carbon Border Adjustment mechanism in Europe and Buy Clean California Act in the US. Meeting these environmental standards is becoming a key (factor in) competitiveness,” a Hyundai Steel official said.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)