The rising cost of raw materials and slowing demand have caused China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s largest and only integrated steelmaker, to post an 18.5 percent decline in profit quarter-on-quarter during the third quarter.
Pre-tax profit totaled NT$15.35 billion (US$461 million) from July to last month, the Kaohsiung-based company said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.
That compared with NT$18.84 billion posted in the second quarter and NT$14.83 billion a year earlier, the company’s data showed. The total was lower than SinoPac Securities Corp (永豐金證券) analysts’ forecast of NT$22 billion.
Shares of China Steel fell 3.38 percent to close at NT$22.9 yesterday before the release of its quarterly figures. The stock has plunged 47.36 percent since the beginning of the year, compared with a decline of 44.39 percent on the benchmark TAIEX, the stock exchange’s tallies showed.
China Steel’s revenue in the third quarter totaled NT$76.89 billion, up 14.81 percent from its second-quarter level, the same filing showed. Year on year, the increase would be 48 percent, according to the company’s data.
Production output and sales volume, meanwhile, dipped 1.96 percent and 2.26 percent to 2,523 tonnes and 2,535 tonnes respectively in the third quarter from the previous quarter, indicating weakened market demand amid a slowing economy at home.
China Steel’s third quarter performance came after the company adjusted upward its quarterly steel prices for domestic clients by 17.8 percent in the third quarter to reflect rising raw material costs and shipping fees.
Despite the price hikes, the company’s 18.5 percent drop in profit in the third quarter was mainly because of a one-off investment loss related to the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵), the online news outlet cnyes.com reported yesterday, citing China Steel executive vice president and spokesman Chung Lo-min (鍾樂民).
Chung told the news outlet that China Steel would write off roughly NT$4 billion in its investment in the loss-making THSRC, the operator of the nation’s first high-speed rail system, in a way to show responsibility to its shareholders.
During the first three quarters of the year, the company saw its pre-tax profit grow NT$1.84 billion, or 3.95 percent, to NT$48.52 billion from a year earlier, with earnings per share at NT$4.04. Revenue expanded NT$48.96 billion, or 32.16 percent, to NT$201.2 billion over the same period, the filing showed.
China Steel is expected to announce next month its new domestic steel prices for the first quarter of next year, after the company raised prices by an average of 3.92 percent for the fourth quarter in August.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last