China Steel reports 234% increase in pretax profit

China Steel Corp , the nation’s only integrated steelmaker, last week reported that its pretax profit last month rose 233.81 percent from a year earlier, as revenue increased 51.4 percent year-on-year.

The firm last month posted consolidated pretax profit of NT$7.87 billion (US$284 million), operating profit of NT$8.09 billion and consolidated revenue of NT$45.28 billion, up from NT$2.36 billion, NT$2.08 billion and NT$29.91 billion respectively a year earlier.

However, on a monthly basis, China Steel’s pretax profit fell 9.03 percent from NT$8.65 billion.

“Although China Steel’s revenue grew in November, its pretax profit declined mainly due to a decrease in operating margin, which offset the increase in revenue,” Capital Investment Management Corp said in a note on Friday.

“The lack of dividend income from its iron ore investment also led to a decline in pretax profit,” it added.

This year, despite US-China trade tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has appeared undaunted.

From January to last month, it reported a nearly 347 percent increase in cumulative pretax profit to NT$78.45 billion, up from NT$219.25 million a year earlier, or earnings per share of NT$4.97.

Consolidated revenue in the first 11 months of the year increased 50.38 percent to NT$427.33 billion, up from NT$284.18 billion a year earlier.

In a statement on Saturday, China Steel quoted chairman Wong Chao-tung as telling the company’s 50th-anniversary celebration in Kaohsiung:“The results for the 11-month period are a company record for the period.”

“Moreover, the company had a net profit margin of 14.8 percent, an operating margin of 17.2 percent and an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin of 25.9 percent in the first three quarters of the year, which all ranked first among the eight major steel mills in Asia,” Wong added.

It was the company’s best-ever birthday present from all of the employees at China Steel, Wong said.

Over the next 50 years, the company would develop into a high-end steelmaker, while also focusing more on green energy development, the statement quoted company president Wang Shy-chin as saying.

Earlier this month, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Delta Electronics Inc to set up a laboratory and cooperate on the rapid development of technologies to save energy, store energy and reduce emissions, Wong said.
Source: Taipei Times