Posco, South Korea’s largest steelmaker, flagged its best ever quarterly operating profit between July and September at 1.5 trillion won ($1.32 billion), showing a sharp 36 percent on-year surge, on the back of improved performance across most businesses, the company said Tuesday.

Posting over 1 trillion won in operating profit for the fifth consecutive quarter, this is the company’s highest operating profit since the Korea International Financial Reporting Standard was implemented in 2011.

The figure comes amid an ongoing tariff war triggered by US trade protectionist measures, with Canada joining the move deciding to slap 25 percent tariffs across seven steel imports earlier this month for 200 days.

Revenue in the July-September period came to 16.4 trillion won and net profit 1 trillion won, showing a 9.1 percent and 16.7 percent on-year increase, respectively, largely due to improved performance across most sectors including steel, construction and energy, the company said.
 

“The steel mill in Indonesia Krakatau Posco showed record-high quarterly operating profit since it began operations in 2013 on top of an earnings hike at Posco Energy compared to the previous quarter, alongside other affiliates,” the company said in a statement.

Touching on shareholder-friendly policies, Chon Jung-son, senior executive vice president of Posco’s corporate strategy and finance center said during the third quarter earnings conference call, “We regret the company’s falling stock price despite good performances. Third quarter performance has turned out be better than expected and to boost trust with long-term investors we are actively reviewing to increase cash dividends, although that would, of course, need decision by the board members.”

The company added it will soon reveal an overseas M&A forged to supply materials to North America, India and Southeast Asia, where its partners are located, and to overseas branches, in consideration of the recent protectionist movements.

By Kim Bo-gyung (lisakim425@heraldcorp.com)