[Courtesy of POSCO]
South Korean steelmaker POSCO said its second-quarter net profit more than doubled, helped by earnings from its non-steel sector businesses.
Net profit for the three months that ended on June 30 soared to 530.1 billion won (471 million US dollars) from 220.5 billion won a year earlier, the steelmaker said in a statement. "Solid results in construction, energy and trading affiliates helped buoy the steelmaker's bottom line in the second quarter," a company spokeswoman said over the phone.
Operating profit jumped 44 percent to 979.1 billion won in the second quarter from 678.5 billion won a year earlier. Sales rose 16 percent to 14.9 trillion won from 12.8 trillion won during the same period.
Looking ahead, the world's fourth-biggest steelmaker by output expects to post 59.3 trillion won in sales for the whole of this year, up 12 percent from 53.1 trillion won achieved in the previous year, the statement said. "In the second half, we will continue to focus on improving our financial status, cutting costs and increasing sales of value-added products to make profits," it said.
Under a three-year restructuring program that ends at the end of 2017, POSCO has sold non-core assets and reorganized its workforce and businesses to remain competitive amid a prolonged economic slowdown since the 2009 financial crisis. POSCO forecasts steel demand will improve further for the remaining year as China continues restructuring in the steel industry and the economies of advanced countries are on a recovery path.
In the January-June period, net profit jumped nearly three times to 1.507 trillion won from 558.9 billion won a year ago.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
