Posted on 23 Mar 2017
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s largest and only integrated steelmaker, yesterday said its net profit skyrocketed 110.9 percent year-on-year to NT$16.04 billion (US$525.8 million) last year, buoyed by soaring global steel prices.
Revenue for the whole of last year increased 2.8 percent to NT$285.05 billion from the previous year, with gross margin up from 7.51 percent to 13.55 percent, company data showed.
The company is to increase its domestic product prices by 6.9 percent for deliveries in the second quarter of this year, after it raised prices by 12.6 percent for the first quarter’s shipments.
CSC said it expects the positive market sentiment to last until the end of the second quarter and its plants would continue to run at full capacity due to customers’ robust demand for steel products.
Based on last year’s earnings, the board yesterday proposed paying a NT$1.4 cash dividend for each preferred share and a NT$0.85 cash dividend for each common share, the Kaohsiung-based company said in a statement.
The proposed dividend payout has to be approved by shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting on June 21.
In related news, Chung Hung Steel Corp (中鴻鋼鐵), a subsidiary of CSC, said it would not pay a dividend to shareholders this year due to a cumulative loss of nearly NT$4 billion last year.
