Posco, the world's third-largest steelmaker, sees an improving global steel market in the next three months, after bottoming out this quarter, and is considering reducing price discounts as the recovery takes hold.

The Korean firm last month described the first quarter as its "most difficult" earnings period, hurt by weak demand from shipbuilders as Chinese growth cooled, and due to the euro zone crisis.

But Hwang Eun-yeon, chief marketing officer of Posco, told the Reuters Mining and Metals Summit on Wednesday that China's weaker economic growth target would only have a "pyschological impact" on the steel market. "The global steel market seems to have hit the bottom after a series of falls in steel prices halted in China," Hwang said.

China this month trimmed its 2012 economic growth target to an eight-year low of 7.5 percent, raising concern of slowing demand for steel in the world's top consumer of the metal.

Posco, in which billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway owns a stake of around 5 percent, will keep operation rates at full capacity to produce a record 38.3 million tonnes of crude steel this year, he said.

Hwang, who joined the firm in 1987, also said Posco planned to raise its steel making capacity by around 75 percent to 70 million tonnes in 2020.

Steelmakers in Asia and Europe have curbed production in recent months as a slowing global economy hit demand and cut steel prices.      But Hwang said South Korean steelmakers including Posoc aimed to reduce discounts in prices as the automotive and shipbuilding sectors helped support demand.

He also said that Posco's contract prices of iron ore and coking coal fell slightly for April-June imports but forecast prices would now remain steady for a while. - Reuters