Hyundai Steel said on the 30th that it expects the steel market to improve this year and plans to continue its earnings recovery by expanding sales of high value-added products, enhancing asset efficiency, and investing in an electric-arc-furnace integrated steel mill in the United States.
Hyundai Steel's operating profit on a consolidation basis last year was 219.2 billion won, a 37.4% increase from a year earlier on a preliminary tally. Revenue for the same period came to 22.7332 trillion won, down 2.1%, but the company plans to lift sales while maintaining operating profit growth.
According to Hyundai Steel that day, the company expects the steel market to improve this year due to supply-demand stabilization from ongoing production cuts and the impact of provisional anti-dumping tariffs.
For flat products, low-priced imports are decreasing following the imposition of up to 33.57% in anti-dumping tariffs on hot-rolled steel sheets from China and Japan implemented in Sep. 2025, and for long and shaped products, prices are projected to rise on supply-demand stabilization driven by steelmakers' output cuts and expectations for a recovery in the construction market.
In line with this, Hyundai Steel set this year's product sales volume at 17.35 million tons (t), up 1.8% from a year earlier. Last year, Hyundai Steel's product sales volume was tallied at 17.03 million t, down 0.3% year over year.
Hyundai Steel plans to focus on sales of high value-added products this year. In particular, it aims to expand sales of high value-added automotive steel sheets based on the steel service center (SSC) in Pune, India, which was completed in the third quarter of last year.
Alongside this, for third-generation automotive steel sheets slated for mass production and supply in the first quarter of 2026, the company plans to secure new demand by conducting performance tests with major global customers.
Third-generation automotive steel sheets are made to raise elongation (the property of a material to stretch) by more than 50% over conventional automotive steel sheets while maintaining tensile strength, enabling car bodies that are lighter and better at absorbing impact.
In addition, it plans to strengthen profitability by expanding sales of nuclear power steel tailored to rising nuclear demand and ultra-heavy plate of high strength for offshore wind (plate 100 mm or thicker) to meet growing offshore wind demand.
Along with expanding product sales, the company also plans to push ahead with existing asset streamlining and energy expense reduction. It expects to improve fixed costs immediately through the closure of the small rebar plant in Incheon early this month, and it will additionally review the sale of noncore assets.
To bolster responsiveness to changes in industrial electricity rates, it is promoting self-supply of power through liquefied natural gas (LNG) self-generation and is also reviewing the installation of solar power facilities at business sites.
Hyundai Steel also said it will push ahead without a hitch with the project to build an electric-arc-furnace integrated steel mill in the United States. The project aims to build an electric-arc-furnace integrated mill in Louisiana to produce 2.7 million t of products annually.
The project will cost a total of $5.8 billion, funded half with equity and half with external borrowing. Of the equity, Hyundai Motor Group, including Hyundai Steel, will contribute 80%, and POSCO Group will contribute 20%.
Hyundai Steel is taking steps to minimize any deterioration in its financial structure from the equity investment in the U.S. mill, including lowering its liability ratio. Hyundai Steel's liability ratio last year was 73.6%, down 6.1 percentage points from a year earlier.
The company also said that, considering higher investment costs, this year's dividend was set at 500 won per share, reduced from last year. The total dividend payout is 65.8 billion won. Last year, Hyundai Steel's dividend was 750 won per share, and the total payout was 98.7 billion won.