China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), Taiwan’s biggest steelmaker, yesterday said its pretax loss shrank to NT$840 million (US$27.45 million) last month, from a loss of NT$1.58 billion a month earlier, due to improved gross margin.
The company also reported an increase in non-operating income from renewable energy subsidiary Zhong Neng Offshore Wind Farm (中能離岸風電) and higher dividend income from its mining investments.
Zhong Neng, an offshore wind farm off the coast of Changhua County, sold 46.21 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity last month, up from 22.46 million kWh a month earlier, the wind farm said in its monthly report.
Photo: CNA
Zhong Neng is a project codeveloped by CSC and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, but is now fully owned by CSC’s subsidiary Zhong Fa Holding Limited (中發控股).
During the first seven months, CSC accumulated NT$2.41 billion in pretax losses, reversing a pretax profit of NT$4.08 billion during the same period last year, the statement said.
CSC attributed the worse financial performance to a reduction steel shipments and lower average selling prices, leading to revenue decline and larger operating losses on an annual basis, a statement said.
Meanwhile, higher mining costs drove up expenditures from non-operating items, it said.
Revenue dropped 11 percent year-on-year to NT$192.66 billion in the first seven months of this year, from NT$217.6 billion, CSC said.
The company shipped a total of 4.36 million tonnes during the January to last month period, it said.
The company said it is positive about the steel industry’s outlook for the rest of this year, given that the easing global trade situation and potential rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve by the end of the year would lead to a recovery in demand.
CSC expects the global steel market to stabilize, supported by steady US and European demand, and China’s efforts to curb excessive production and lower inventory.
China’s Baoshan Iron & Steel Co (寶鋼) and Vietnam-based Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp (台塑河靜鋼鐵興業) earlier this month raised some steel prices by 200 yuan (US$28) and US$11 per tonne respectively, CSC said.
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