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 million 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.
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