Posco Holdings posts W945b operating profit in Q3, up 48% on-year

Posco Holdings reported consolidated sales of 19.14 trillion won ($14.3 billion) and operating profit of 945 billion won for the third quarter, the company announced Monday.

Sales and operating profit rose 10.9 percent and 47.9 percent, respectively, from the same period a year earlier. Net profit for the period came in at 760 billion won, down 1.8 percent year-on-year.

Posco Holdings said the results marked three consecutive quarters of earnings improvement, even as the business environment grew more volatile amid rising oil prices and a sharp jump in US government bond interest rates. The company attributed the performance to its "Triple Core" strategy, under which its three core businesses — steel (industrial resource), battery materials (strategic resource) and LNG (energy resource) — offset each other's profitability.

Steel drove the earnings recovery. Despite higher raw material costs, Posco returned to the 400 billion won range in operating profit for the first time in four quarters, supported by higher selling prices and increased sales volumes.

The battery materials segment underperformed. Posco Future M improved its operating profit quarter-on-quarter on the back of a recovery in cathode material sales and higher selling prices. However, the segment as a whole swung to an operating loss, weighed down by falling global lithium prices and seasonal factors including reduced winter output at Posco Argentina.

The infrastructure segment posted higher operating profit quarter-on-quarter. POSCO International maintained solid profitability through production expansion in its gas field operations and Indonesian palm business, while Posco E&C also saw an increase in new orders.

Posco Holdings is advancing key initiatives across its business segments under the resource-focused Triple Core strategy announced in July. In the steel segment, the company broke ground on a new automotive hot-dip galvanized steel production facility (8CGL) at its Gwangyang steelworks in September, an investment aimed at strengthening its competitiveness in automotive steel materials.

In the strategic resource segment, Posco Future M is converting its ternary cathode material facilities in Pohang to a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) system to respond to the expanding ESS market. Posco Argentina completed its second factory, with a capacity of 25,000 tons. The second factory is expected to begin contributing to profit in the second half of 2027, once its ramp-up is complete.

In the energy resource segment, the company signed an agreement to acquire a 100 percent stake in shale gas assets held by US firm Chord in Pennsylvania, securing annual production of approximately 1 million tons on an LNG-equivalent basis.

Financial health also improved. Posco Holdings reduced its net borrowings by 4.3 trillion won, aided by proactive cash management and the won's strengthening, while its debt ratio fell 6.7 percentage points.

"We will continue to secure profitability and future growth drivers in line with the Triple Core strategy," a Posco Group official said.