South Korea's top steelmaker POSCO on Oct. 14 announced its third-quarter net profit surged 40% year-on-year amid rising prices.
Net profit was 1.21 trillion won (US$990 million) in July-September compared to 871 billion won a year earlier, the world's fourth largest steelmaker said. Operating profit for the third quarter jumped 84.9% year-on-year to 1.98 trillion won. Sales rose 67.6% to 8.81 trillion won.
POSCO attributed the strong quarterly results partly to good market conditions and strong sales of value-added products such as stainless steel. But it is facing challenges from the rising cost of raw materials and the won's weakness against the dollar. "We are expected to face a tough challenge in the fourth quarter," vice president Lee Dong-Hee said, adding demand would slump. The company said it would step up a cost-saving campaign to cope with worsening prospects.
For all of this year POSCO aims to post 6.6 trillion won in operating profits on sales of 31.9 trillion won.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2008
