Battery materials affiliate POSCO Future M returned to profit, while resource businesses including POSCO Argentina's lithium operation and LNG helped lift group earnings above consensus.
POSCO Holdings reported second-quarter revenue of 19.26 trillion won and operating profit of 819 billion won, beating market expectations as lithium, LNG and other resource businesses helped offset weak steel-market conditions. Within the group, POSCO Argentina posted its first quarterly operating profit since POSCO entered the country in 2018, supported by stabilized operations and facility improvements at its brine lithium Plant 1 after achieving its first monthly profit turnaround in March. POSCO Future M also reported a sharp earnings recovery, with second-quarter operating profit rising 3,237.5% year on year to 26.7 billion won on revenue of 679.5 billion won, driven by cost cuts, solid basic-materials earnings and a return to profit in energy materials. The company said it is advancing lower-cost LFP cathode production, expanding its battery-materials lineup and preparing graphite plants in Vietnam and Saemangeum for trial operations next year. POSCO Holdings said POSCO Argentina's milestone supports its broader lithium expansion strategy, which targets annual production capacity of 173,000 tons by 2033 across brine and ore lithium. The earnings milestone also came as President Lee Jae-myung publicly referred to the Argentine project as "Sal de Oro" during his South American tour and resource cooperation was discussed at the South Korea-Argentina summit.