Rebar maker Feng Hsin Steel Co (豐興鋼鐵) on Thursday last week reported its highest annual pretax income since the global financial crisis in 2008, aided by Beijing’s efforts to eliminate low-end products and a sound recovery in the global economy.
Unaudited pretax income was NT$3.227 billion (US$110.1 million) last year, up 46.91 percent from NT$2.196 billion the previous year, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said.
Based on the company’s 581.6 million shares, Feng Hsin’s pretax earnings per share were NT$5.55 last year, the highest in 10 years.
Consolidated revenue totaled NT$24.74 billion last year, an increase of 18.2 percent from 2016, company data showed.
The robust results reinforced the company’s optimistic outlook for this year.
It expects earnings to increase further this year on contributions from the new production lines, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported on Friday last week.
Rebar is a raw material for reinforced concrete used in the construction industry.
The Taichung-based company spent NT$2.466 billion in 2016 on the construction of a new plant, which has an annual capacity of 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes and is expected to start operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, the newspaper said.
Feng Hsin expects the new plant’s upgraded manufacturing process to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and lower production costs, supporting a further growth in profit, the report said.
Founded in 1969, Feng Hsin is the nation’s leading electric arc furnace steel producer.
Its products include angle steel, channel steel, steel flats, steel bars, special steel, bar steel and steel rods.
Separately, Feng Hsin yesterday announced that it is to lower its price by NT$200 per tonne for rebar products to NT$17,200, its third consecutive weekly price cut, while leaving its scrap buying prices unchanged at NT$9,600 per tonne, the Chinese-language China Times reported, citing company sources.
Feng Hsin shares spent most of last year in consolidation mode as demand for the company’s products bottomed out from a low base in 2016.
The shares closed 0.65 percent lower at NT$61 in Taipei trading yesterday, having increased 17.5 percent from Dec. 19 last year, when they traded at NT$51.9, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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