POSCO Holdings Inc., the holding company of South Korea's top steelmaker, said Thursday its second-quarter net profit almost stayed flat from a year earlier amid soaring material prices and robust performance at its non-steelmaking affiliates.
Its net profit stood at 1.8 trillion won (US$1.38 billion) on a consolidated basis in the April-June period.
The earnings beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 1.37 trillion won, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
Its second-quarter operating income fell 4.5 percent on-year to reach 2.1 trillion won, and sales rose 25.7 percent to reach 23 trillion won.
In March this year, POSCO launched a holding company to better nurture non-steelmaking businesses, such as battery materials and hydrogen.
After the breakup, POSCO Holdings Inc. has focused on charting out future business, research and development, and investment.
The steelmaker's affiliates, such as POSCO Chemical and POSCO Energy, are under the wing of the holding firm.
The steelmaker attributed the better-than-expected performance to firm demand from automakers, shipbuilders and construction companies, and an increase in prices of key products that offset a rise in the cost of raw materials, such as iron ore.
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