POSCO's 2017 results in line with expectations

Yonhap quoted Moody's Investors Service as saying that POSCO's robust earnings results for 2017 were in line with expectations, and support the steelmaker's Baa2 rating. Ms Gloria Tsuen, a Moody's Vice President and senior analyst said in a statement that "POSCO's earnings increased significantly in 2017 mainly as a result of improved industry fundamentals following cuts in China's large-scale steel capacity, and due to the company's increasing sales of value-added products.” Moody's expects such favorable industry conditions to continue this year, allowing POSCO to remain profitable and improve its financial status. POSCO net profit nearly tripled to 2.974 trillion won (USD 2.78 billion) for all of 2017 from 1.048 trillion won a year earlier. The sharp increase was helped by recovering steel demand and equity gains from affiliates. Operating profit jumped 63% on year to 4.622 trillion won last year from 2.844 trillion won the previous year. Sales rose 14 percent on-year to 60.655 trillion won from 53.084 trillion won.