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| ▲ Hyundai Steel Co.'s steelmaking plant in Dangjin, about 80 kilometers south of Seoul (Yonhap) |
(LEAD) Hyundai Steel-Q3 earnings
(LEAD) Hyundai Steel Q3 net down by more than half on price falls, rising costs
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SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Steel Co., South Korea's No. 2 steelmaker, said Thursday its third-quarter net profit fell by more than half from a year earlier due to falling prices and rising costs.
Net income stood at 264 billion won (US$186 million) on a consolidated basis in the July-September period, compared with a net profit of 596 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.
The earnings beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 235.3 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
Operating income dipped 55 percent on-year to 373 billion won, while sales spiked 19.4 percent to 6.99 trillion won, it said.
The steelmaker attributed the downbeat performance to a fall in prices of key products and increased costs.
The company expects demand to remain weak due to an economic slowdown, aggressive monetary tightening and a slump in the construction and real estate sectors.
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