China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s largest steelmaker, said in a statement yesterday its unaudited pretax profit was NT$3.01 billion (US$93.9 million) last month, or NT$0.22 per share.
The company did not offer the year-earlier figure for comparison in the statement. However, previous company statements showed that last month’s result was 1.65 percent higher from a year earlier, but 30.26 percent lower than July’s pretax profit of NT$4.32 billion.
The Kaohsiung-based company attributed the month-on-month decline in pretax profit mainly to its decision in July to cut steel prices for delivery this month by an average of NT$1,020 (US$31.54) per tonne and its offer to domestic customers of “retroactive rebates,” meaning the discount would cover purchases made in July and last month.
The declining profit for last month was also a result of lower steel exports, based on the company’s statement.
Last month, China Steel shipped 206,592 tonnes of steel to other Asian countries, mainly China and Japan, or 24.21 percent of its total exports, at 853,483 tonnes. That compared with 246,350 tonnes in exports in July, or 29.01 percent of 849,051 tonnes.
Last month’s revenue, however, reached the highest level in 22 months at NT$22.23 billion, up 68.15 percent from NT$13.22 billion a year earlier and a 0.95 percent increase from NT$22.02 billion in July, the company’s data showed.
In the first eight months of this year, pretax profit totaled NT$34.78 billion or NT$2.56 per share, on an aggregate revenue of NT$156.76 billion.
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