China Steel Corp’s (中鋼) unaudited pretax profit last month dropped 8.08 percent to NT$1.82 billion (US$61.6 million) from January’s NT$1.98 billion, as the Lunar New Year holiday cut the number of working days, a company statement showed.
The nation’s largest steelmaker did not offer a year-earlier comparison figure, but based on the company’s previous statements, pretax profit last month plunged 51.34 percent from the NT$3.74 billion it posted in February last year.
The Kaohsiung-based company sold 651.65 tonnes of steel last month, with 432.98 tonnes, or 66.44 percent of the total, going to domestic downstream customers. The domestic sales ratio was 72.85 percent in January, company data showed.
Last month’s revenue reached NT$15.9 billion, down 17.56 percent from NT$19.28 billion one month earlier, but up 5.4 percent from NT$15.08 billion a year ago.
In the first two months of this year, pretax profit totaled NT$3.8 billion on aggregate revenue of NT$35.18 billion, compared with NT$7.9 billion in profit and NT$33.27 billion a year earlier, the data showed.
In related news, China Steel said it was not involved in the appointment of the chairman for state-run Tang Eng Iron Works Corp (唐榮), nor does it plan to control the local stainless steel maker, as Chinese-language media reports said.
“China Steel has an 8.53 percent stake in Tang Eng and only enjoys one seat in the company’s 11-seat board,” China Steel said in a separate statement. “We do not have the power to control the board.”
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