Korea Tungsten Company (KTC,Korean: 대한중석;Hanja: 大韓重石;RR: daehan jungseok) was a majorSouth Korean manufacturer of tungsten cutting tools, tungsten powder, and related metal-cutting products. It was the 28th-largestchaebol by asset[1] with subsidiaries such as Korea Tungsten Construction and Korea Sintered Metal. In 1952, KTC appointed its first President, Ahn Taek Jun. With the national government, KTC also establishedPOSCO, which is now the world's second largest steelmaker by output. In 1998, Keo-Pyung, then KTC's proprietor, defaulted on its loans and was declared bankrupt by its main creditor,CHB Bank. On May 12, 1998, Keo-Pyung announced that it would shed 14 of its 19 companies, Korea Tungsten among them.ISCAR, the predecessor and now the largest arm ofIMC, bought KTC after months of negotiations, and renamed itTaeguTec. Today, TaeguTec group has become a global tooling and solutions giant with 25 overseas subsidiaries and over 130 distributors in 50 countries throughout the world.
The history of KTC dates back to April 1916, when the Sangdong Tungsten Mine was discovered inGangwon Province,South Korea. Ever since, the company had grown to be one of the most successful and influential companies in Korea, accounting for 60 per cent of the country's total export revenue in the 60s and 70s.
