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| Edited By: |Source: Reuters |Updated: Mar 17, 2018, 02:34 AM IST
South Korea's POSCO, the world's No.4 steelmaker, reported on Thursday a 14 percent rise in fourth quarter operating profit, boosted by recovering demand and cheaper iron ore and coking coal.
POSCO, the first major Asian steelmaker to report results for the October-December quarter, posted an operating profit of 1.6 trillion won ($1.43 billion), up from 1.4 trillion won a year earlier.
The country's top steelmaker had forecast a full year operating profit of 3.2 trillion won, implying a 1.6 trillion won fourth quarter operating profit, and analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters IBES had forecast the same, on average.
The company is expected to post firm earnings growth in the first quarter of 2010, helped by healthier demand from the auto and electronics industries on the back of a continued pick-up in global growth.
Shares in POSCO have risen 58% over the past 12 months, outperforming a 41% rise in the Seoul benchmark index.
