POSCO E&C has secured a 1.5 trillion won, or about $1.1 billion, contract to build two LNG (liquefied natural gas) tanks for GULF, Thailand's largest private company, at the Map Ta Phut petrochemical complex in Rayong, Thailand's biggest industrial cluster of its kind. The award means POSCO E&C will have built four of the eight LNG tanks operating or under construction in Thailand, after defeating a consortium of Japanese and Taiwanese rivals. The company said its integrated "POSCO-style EPC" approach and its ability to handle commissioning (the final testing and startup phase) entirely in-house were key advantages. Work is running ahead of schedule, with progress at 29.4% of a 45-month program and the tank roof-raising operation now expected within this year instead of March 17, 2027. The project comes as Thailand's LNG market shifts on rising power demand linked to data center expansion, with six LNG tanks at Map Ta Phut already supplying a quarter of the country's energy needs. POSCO E&C, which entered Thailand in 2002 and built two LNG tanks for state-owned PTT in 2017, also plans to bid for two more tanks PTT is expected to order in the second half. Separately, Hyundai Motor and Kia are approaching 10 million cumulative eco-friendly vehicle sales. Their total reached 9,229,837 units in the first half, making it likely they will cross the mark this year, 18 years after launching their first hybrid in 2009. First-half sales rose 22.7% year over year to 1,064,542 units, led by hybrids at 5,623,312 units cumulatively, followed by pure electric vehicles at 2,794,248 units, plug-in hybrids at 762,633 units and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at 49,644 units. The companies' strategy of broadening hybrid offerings while continuing to roll out new EVs appears to be paying off, and Hyundai's virtual gear-shift technology has also drawn industry attention after Porsche, Lexus and Mercedes-AMG adopted similar approaches.