Posted on 27 Mar 2023
During February, China Steel Corp (CSC), Taiwan's top integrated steel producer headquartered in Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, shrugged off months of losses to achieve a pre-tax profit of TWD 69.3 million ($2.3 million), according to the company's latest release on March 23. In the previous month, the integrated mill had taken a TWD 1.09 billion pounding, as Mysteel Global reported.
Although the size of last month's profit was not huge, February was CSC's first profitable month since last September, according to CSC's available data.
The uptick had resulted from the fact that carbon steel sales had recovered and CSC had also lifted the list prices of its major steel products, the company explained in the release.
During February, the integrated mill's carbon steel sales reached 667,207 tonnes, higher by a large 118,236 tonnes or 21.5% from the previous month, the company's release showed.
Since the start of this year, CSC has steadily raised its monthly list prices of major steel products, due to its higher production costs, the significant increase in global steel prices, and its expectations for recovery in steel demand both at home and abroad. These factors also helped the company increase its sales revenue last month and escape from its losses, Mysteel Global noted.
The company believes that its business performance will recover further in this year's second quarter, as steel demand is expected to improve during the traditional peak season for steel consumption. Meanwhile, the recovery in global manufacturing activity may also boost steel demand.
It was this confidence that led CSC to raise the list prices of its major steel products further for sales in Q2, with those of monthly-priced products rising by another TWD 800-1,000/t for April, as Mysteel Global reported.
Over January-February, CSC's total carbon steel sales registered 1.22 million tonnes, lower by 200,751 tonnes or 14.2% on year. The steel giant still recorded a total pre-tax loss of TWD 1.02 billion over the first two months of this year, well below the pre-tax profit of TWD 9.68 billion for the first two months of last year, according to the release.
Source:Mysteel Global
