China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s only integrated steelmaker, yesterday said low steel prices had pushed its pre-tax profit down 69.78 percent to NT$6.13 billion (US$211.6 million) last year from a year ago.
The Greater Kaohsiung-based company said in a statement that revenue was NT$207.19 billion last year, down 13.8 percent from a year earlier.
“The company suffered greatly from low steel prices for the year, which dragged down both revenue and profit,” vice president Steve Lee (李慶超) said by telephone.
China Steel said in its statement that its pre-tax profit was NT$2.14 billion in the fourth quarter last year, up 3.93 percent from NT$2.06 billion in the third quarter, due to cheaper raw material prices.
However, the fourth-quarter figure was 62.96 percent less than the NT$5.78 billion it reported for the same period of 2011.
Production volume was 8.38 million tonnes last year, down 4.27 percent from 8.77 million tonnes in 2011, while sales volume was 8.79 million tonnes, down 4.07 percent from 9.17 million tonnes in 2011, the company said.
Grand Cathay Investment Services Corp (大華投顧) analyst Tsai Yen-ling (蔡燕鈴) yesterday said she estimates the company’s after-tax profit last year could be NT$5.57 billion, including income of NT$111 million obtained from selling the firm’s shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) in the second half of last year.
The company’s earnings per share are estimated at NT$0.36 per share for last year, Tsai said in a note.
Lee said he expected the firm’s sales volume to rise 10 percent in the first quarter this year from last quarter because of improving economic sentiment.
On Friday, the company announced it intends to raise its March contract prices by 3.08 percent per tonne on average, on the back of rising customer demand.
While China Steel is expecting steel prices to rise steadily this quarter, the company will start using higher-priced iron ore from March, which will push its costs higher.
Meanwhile, lower shipments resulting from the long Lunar New Year holidays are also likely to drive sales down in the first quarter, Tsai said.
China Steel shares were down 2.32 percent at NT$27.35 yesterday in Taipei trading. Over the past 12 months, the company’s shares have fallen 5.53 percent, while the TAIEX has gained 6.79 percent.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San