POSCO Holdings Posts 34.9% Profit Jump in Q2 as Lithium and LNG Businesses Deliver

POSCO Holdings said its second-quarter consolidated revenue reached 19.259 trillion won ($14 billion), with operating profit climbing 34.9% from a year earlier to 819 billion won. Net profit attributable to the parent surged 808% year-on-year to 761 billion won, the steelmaker-turned-conglomerate announced on July 30, crediting gains far outside its traditional steel business.

The standout was POSCO Argentina, the group's lithium brine operation, which posted its first-ever quarterly operating profit after stabilizing production and cutting costs at its first salt-flat facility. The unit had posted losses in both the prior quarter and the same period last year. A related battery-materials joint venture, POSCO Filbara Lithium Solution, also narrowed its losses sharply, while POSCO Future M's battery materials arm swung to markedly higher profit on improved inventory valuations and a rebound in demand from key customers.

Energy proved just as important to the quarter's results. POSCO International, the group's trading and energy arm, reported record quarterly operating profit of 429 billion won, up 26.9% from a year earlier and 14% above market expectations. Higher gas prices from its Myanmar fields, expanded output at the Senex gas project in Australia, and a recovery in an Indonesian gas venture that had struggled earlier this year all contributed, alongside stronger LNG trading and U.S. trading operations.

The core steel business told a more mixed story. POSCO's standalone steel unit posted revenue of 9.415 trillion won, up 5.2% from a year earlier, but operating profit fell 46.6% year-on-year to 274 billion won as raw material costs rose. Compared with the first quarter, however, steel profit jumped 28.5% as product prices and sales volumes both improved, with average selling prices for hot-rolled products rising by roughly 42,000 won per ton.

Across the group, the overall operating margin rose to 4.3%, up 0.3 percentage point from the prior quarter, as gains in strategic resources and energy offset softer steel earnings. POSCO Holdings also said it accelerated its portfolio overhaul, completing 12 corporate restructuring deals in the first half that freed up 475.4 billion won in cash, and raised its target for cumulative cash generation from such disposals to 3.5 trillion won by 2028, up from a previous goal of 2.8 trillion won by 2027.

The results reinforce the "Triple Core" strategy that chairman Chang In-hwa has promoted since taking the helm, positioning steel alongside strategic resources such as lithium and rare earths, and energy businesses including LNG and renewables, as three pillars meant to diversify earnings beyond the cyclical steel market. The group has earmarked 16.7 trillion won in growth investment over the next three years to build out that structure.