China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), Taiwan’s largest integrated steelmaker, swung into a loss in the first half of this year as it remained in the red for a third consecutive month last month.
Its pretax loss was NT$1.57 billion (US$53.3 million) from January to last month, an unfavorable result compared with a pretax profit of NT$3.498 billion for the same period last year, the company said in a statement on Friday.
The first-half result reflected a slump in operating income due to decreases in revenue, sales volume and average selling prices of its steel products, as US tariffs and local currency’s appreciation kept downstream clients sidelined, the company said.
Photo: Reuters
Additionally, lower dividends from the company’s mining investments also caused a decline in nonoperating income, it said.
The company said its cumulative revenue totaled NT$168.27 billion in the first half of the year, down from NT$188.33 billion during the same period last year, with shipments of 3.78 billion tonnes, also down from 3.96 million tonnes the previous year.
Although global trade, consumption and investment confidence are still at a low level, CSC said it is cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the second half of this year.
That is because market uncertainty continues to ease since the US has started notifying its trading partners of tariff rates, the company said in the statement.
The end-market demand is also expected to gradually emerge, given a positive outlook for its downstream partners in Taiwan amid strong demand for emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, it said.
Furthermore, China recently announced that it would begin construction of the world’s largest hydropower dam in Tibet, which is expected to boost steel demand for infrastructure, the company said
This might help balance steel production and sales, and lead the market out of the trough earlier, the company added.
ELECTRONICS BOOST: A predicted surge in exports would likely be driven by ICT products, exports of which have soared 84.7 percent from a year earlier, DBS said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan this year to 4 percent from 3 percent, citing robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related exports and accelerated shipment activity, which are expected to offset potential headwinds from US tariffs. “Our GDP growth forecast for 2025 is revised up to 4 percent from 3 percent to reflect front-loaded exports and strong AI demand,” Singapore-based DBS senior economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said in an online briefing. Taiwan’s second-quarter performance beat expectations, with GDP growth likely surpassing 5 percent, driven by a 34.1 percent year-on-year increase in exports, Ma said, citing government
‘REMARKABLE SHOWING’: The economy likely grew 5 percent in the first half of the year, although it would likely taper off significantly, TIER economist Gordon Sun said The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) yesterday raised Taiwan’s GDP growth forecast for this year to 3.02 percent, citing robust export-driven expansion in the first half that is likely to give way to a notable slowdown later in the year as the front-loading of global shipments fades. The revised projection marks an upward adjustment of 0.11 percentage points from April’s estimate, driven by a surge in exports and corporate inventory buildup ahead of possible US tariff hikes, TIER economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy likely grew more than 5 percent in the first six months
SMART MANUFACTURING: The company aims to have its production close to the market end, but attracting investment is still a challenge, the firm’s president said Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said its long-term global production plan would stay unchanged amid geopolitical and tariff policy uncertainties, citing its diversified global deployment. With operations in Taiwan, Thailand, China, India, Europe and the US, Delta follows a “produce at the market end” strategy and bases its production on customer demand, with major site plans unchanged, Delta president Simon Chang (張訓海) said on the sidelines of a company event yesterday. Thailand would remain Delta’s second headquarters, as stated in its first-quarter earnings conference, with its plant there adopting a full smart manufacturing system, Chang said. Thailand is the firm’s second-largest overseas
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market value closed above US$1 trillion for the first time in Taipei last week, with a raised sales forecast driven by robust artificial intelligence (AI) demand. TSMC saw its Taiwanese shares climb to a record high on Friday, a near 50 percent rise from an April low. That has made it the first Asian stock worth more than US$1 trillion, since PetroChina Co (中國石油天然氣) briefly reached the milestone in 2007. As investors turned calm after their aggressive buying on Friday, amid optimism over the chipmaker’s business outlook, TSMC lost 0.43 percent to close at NT$1,150
RSS