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SEOUL, July 24 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s foremost steel manufacturer POSCO Holdings Inc. declared Monday that its second-quarter earnings plummeted by almost 56 percent year-over-year due to sluggish sales.
Consolidated net income amounted to 800 billion won (US$624.8 million) in the April-June period, a decrease of 55.6 percent from one year ago, the company reported in a regulatory filing.
Sales shrank 12.6 percent year-over-year to 20.1 trillion won, and operating income dropped 38.1 percent to 1.3 trillion won.
The year-over-year dip in its earnings was attributed to a one-time factor. During the same period last year, POSCO Holdings basked in a post-COVID surge in the international steel sector and a subsequent rise in steel prices.
Yet POSCO Holdings’ second-quarter net income was close to a median estimate of 792.3 billion won in a survey of analysts by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
Its second-quarter operating profit was also up 88.1 percent from the first quarter, when the company was suffering from serious typhoon damage. It was the first time in a year for its operating profit to exceed 1 trillion won.
In September last year, POSCO was compelled to suspend three blast furnaces at its steel mill and steel processing facilities in Pohang, 272 kilometers southeast of Seoul, as a powerful typhoon battered them.
POSCO Holdings outlined its future strategy to cope with changes in future business areas in an attempt to strengthen its core steel business.
The company said it is aiming to produce 10.5 million tons of low-carbon steel products and 1 million tons of electrical steel for green vehicles by 2030.
Shares in POSCO Holdings closed 16.52 percent higher at 642,000 won on the Seoul bourse Monday, far outperforming the benchmark KOSPI’s 0.72 percent increase.
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