POSCO’s headquarters in Pohang, some 370 kilometers south of Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — POSCO Holdings Inc. on Monday reported a 77-percent drop in its third-quarter net income, in the face of typhoon damage and a fall in prices of key products.
Its net profit for the July-September period reached 600 billion won (US$416.8 million) on a consolidated basis, compared with a net profit of 2.6 trillion won a year earlier, the holding company of the country’s top steelmaker POSCO said in a regulatory filing.
Its operating profit fell 71 percent on-year to 900 billion won. Its third-quarter revenue increased 2.9 percent to 21.2 trillion won over the cited period.
The net profit failed to meet market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 677.2 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
POSCO Holdings attributed the slump in its third-quarter earnings to typhoon-related damage and a downturn in the steelmaking sector amid an economic slump.
In early September, POSCO was forced to halt three blast furnaces at its steel mill and steel processing facilities in Pohang, about 370 kilometers southeast of Seoul, as Typhoon Hinnamnor pounded some of its facilities.
The production of cold-rolled steel sheet and stainless steel was hardest hit by the powerful typhoon that killed more than 10 people, and left severe flooding and damage in its wake.
The steelmaker earlier expected 2.4 trillion won in lost revenue, some 2.7 percent of the steelmaker’s annual revenue, with 170 tons of lost production.
POSCO Holdings estimated a drop of some 436 billion won in its third-quarter operating income due to the typhoon.
Shares in POSCO Holdings dropped 0.4 percent to 248,000 won on the Seoul bourse, underperforming the broader KOSPI’s 1.04 percent gain. The earnings results were released after the market closed.
(Yonhap)
