(2nd LD) POSCO Holdings-Q2 earnings

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(2nd LD) POSCO Holdings-Q2 earnings

(2nd LD) POSCO Holdings net down 55.6 pct in Q2

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SEOUL, July 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top steelmaker POSCO Holdings Inc. said Monday its second-quarter earnings tumbled nearly 56 percent on-year amid sluggish sales.

Consolidated net profit came to 800 billion won (US$624.8 million) in the April-June period, down 55.6 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Sales shrank 12.6 percent on-year to 20.1 trillion won, and operating income sank 38.1 percent to 1.3 trillion won.

The on-year drop in its earnings was ascribed to a one-off factor. During the same period of last year, POSCO Holdings basked in a post-COVID boom in the global steel industry and a subsequent increase in steel prices.

Yet POSCO Holdings' second-quarter net income was almost in line with a median estimate of 792.3 billion won in a survey of analysts by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

Its second-quarter operating profit was also up 88.1 percent from the first quarter, when the company was reeling from serious typhoon damage. It was the first time in a year for its operating profit to exceed 1 trillion won.

In September last year, POSCO was forced to halt three blast furnaces at its steel mill and steel processing facilities in Pohang, 272 kilometers southeast of Seoul, as a powerful typhoon pounded them.

POSCO Holdings unveiled its future strategy to cope with changes in future business areas in an effort to bolster its core steel business.

The company said it is targeting to turn out 10.5 million tons of low-carbon steel products and 1 million tons of electrical steel for green vehicles by 2030.

Shares in POSCO Holdings closed 16.52 percent up at 642,000 won on the Seoul bourse Monday, far outperforming the benchmark KOSPI's 0.72 percent increase.

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