CENS reported that China Steel Corporation, the largest steel maker in Taiwan, has scored pretax of TWD 712 million in August 2012, inching up by 1.04% MoM and bringing its pretax earnings for the first eight months of the year to a total of TWD 3.345 billion.

Institutional investors predicted the CSC to receive more orders in the fourth quarter of the year than in the third quarter. They said, however, that as steel prices still linger at low levels in the Asian market, chances are slim for the market to pick up significantly in the fourth quarter. But booming demand at the end of the year is likely to drive up part of shipments and revenues.

Based on the financial reports released by CSC, the firm's revenue reached TWD 16.829 billion in August 2012, down by 18.68% YoY and down by 7.08% MoM. The firm's August 2012 pretax profit of TWD 712 million represented a sharp decline of 61.11% YoY, though slightly rising 1.04% from July 2012. And CSC's after tax profits amounted to TWD 1.945 billion in the first half of 2012, with earnings per share of TWD 0.13.

In terms of operating performance of steel manufacturers in Asia 2011, the CSC posted a net profit margin of 4.86% in 2011, next only to 5.27% recorded by Pohang Iron and Steel Company of South Korea, while Japan's top three steel makers all suffered operating losses.

As to the operating performances of Asian steel makers in the second half this year, the net profit margin of Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation, a state owned iron and steel company in mainland China, ranked first due mainly to Baosteel selling out its special steel and stainless steel operations in the second quarter; Pohang Iron and Steel came second and the CSC ranked third.

CSC indicated that the firm is striving hard to boost profitability amid the gloomy market now, adding that its earning performance would improve significantly as long as the economy recovers in the near future.

Source - CENS

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