China Steel Corp (中鋼), Taiwan’s largest maker of the metal, expects third-quarter earnings to be “very good” after raising product prices.
“Judging from July and August pretax profits, the third quarter is a very good season,” Lin Chung-yi (林中義), a company assistant vice president, said at an investor conference in Taipei yesterday, without giving estimates.
“We’ll probably set a quarterly record,” he said, without elaborating if the record will be on profit or sales.
Kaohsiung-based China Steel increased prices for domestic customers by 18 percent in the third quarter as costs soared. Asian mills are paying three times more for coking coal and almost two times more for iron ore this year.
The mill’s sales last month soared 51 percent from a year earlier, bringing eight-month revenue to NT$176.8 billion (US$5.5 billion), a 31 percent gain from last year, China Steel said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Sept. 9.
Average production costs this year will probably rise 42 percent from last year, compared with an estimated 34 percent gain in product prices, Lin said yesterday.
China Steel’s net income rose 16 percent to NT$15.2 billion in the three months ended on June 30, from NT$13.1 billion a year earlier, after raising prices. First-half profit climbed 2.7 percent to NT$26.9 billion, China Steel said on Aug. 27.
It announced on Aug. 28 a 3.9 percent increase in fourth-quarter prices for domestic customers, the smallest gain this year.
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