PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are calculated in-house from the last 4 quarters (2025Q3–2026Q2) · Dividend yield is based on ₩500 per share · Prices as of the 2026-10-02 close
With operating margins thinned to around 1%, Hyundai Steel is simultaneously pushing through second-half price hikes and a multi-billion-dollar U.S. electric-arc-furnace project.
In 2025 consolidated revenue was KRW 22.73tn with operating profit of KRW 219.2bn (1.0% margin), far below the KRW 1,616.5bn operating profit of 2022.
Quarterly operating profit recovered from KRW 15.7bn in 1Q26 to KRW 57.7bn in 2Q26, and owners' net income swung from a loss to a profit.
The company said higher auto sheet prices apply from August, while shipbuilding plate price talks aimed at increases are ongoing.
Anti-dumping duties on Chinese plate and hot-rolled coil plus China's steel export licensing have eased import pressure, though bonded-zone circumvention remains a loophole.
The 2.7mtpa Louisiana EAF mill lifts capex and debt in the near term, with permitting and litigation variables in parallel.
Hyundai Steel is Hyundai Motor Group's steel affiliate, running both blast furnaces and electric arc furnaces at its Dangjin integrated works, with flat products and bar/section products as its two pillars.
Flat products center on automotive sheet, hot-rolled and cold-rolled coil and heavy plate, while bar and section output is dominated by rebar and H-beams for construction.
On its January 2026 earnings call the company guided to 2026 flat product sales of 11.833mn tonnes, up 114,000 tonnes year on year, and bar/section sales of 5.515mn tonnes, up 205,000 tonnes.
Hyundai Motor and Kia are the core customers for auto sheet, the three major domestic shipbuilders for plate, and construction and distribution channels for bar and sections.
Competitively it faces POSCO in flat products and Dongkuk Steel and Daehan Steel in bar and sections, with import prices effectively anchoring domestic distribution levels. Recently the effort to backfill weak traditional construction demand with advanced infrastructure has become explicit.
The company said it operates a task force for next-generation power infrastructure sales and has won new orders tied to seven domestic data centers, and it presents as a strength a so-called total package system spanning rebar and sections through hot-rolled, cold-rolled and plate.
High-specification plate for next-generation nuclear containment vessels has completed development and mass-production setup, with customer samples planned for the third quarter, according to the company.
Offshore, the joint venture HPLS, owned 50% by Hyundai Steel, 20% by POSCO and 15% each by Hyundai Motor and Kia, is building a 2.7mn-tonne electric arc furnace mill in Donaldsonville, Louisiana.
| Quarter | Revenue | Operating profit | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025Q2 | ₩5.9T | ₩101.8B | 1.7% |
| 2025Q3 | ₩5.7T | ₩93.2B | 1.6% |
| 2025Q4 | ₩5.5T | ₩43.3B | 0.8% |
| 2026Q1 | ₩5.7T | ₩15.7B | 0.3% |
| 2026Q2 | ₩6.1T | ₩57.7B | 0.9% |
| Year | Revenue | Operating profit | Net income (parent) | Op. margin | ROE | Debt-to-equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ₩27.3T | ₩1.6T | ₩1T | 5.9% | 5.4% | 92.4% |
| 2023 | ₩25.9T | ₩798.3B | ₩461.2B | 3.1% | 2.4% | 80.6% |
| 2024 | ₩23.2T | ₩159.5B | -₩11.6B | 0.7% | −0.1% | 79.7% |
| 2025 | ₩22.7T | ₩219.2B | -₩6.9B | 1.0% | 0.0% | 73.6% |
Consolidated basis (financial statements including subsidiaries) · Final figures from DART filings · Net income attributable to owners of the parent · Data as of 2026-09-04
The multi-year trend has been clearly downward. Consolidated revenue fell for four straight years, from KRW 27,340.6bn in 2022 to KRW 25,914.8bn in 2023, KRW 23,226.1bn in 2024 and KRW 22,733.2bn in 2025.
Operating profit shrank from KRW 1,616.5bn (5.9% margin) in 2022 to KRW 798.3bn (3.1%) in 2023, KRW 159.5bn (0.7%) in 2024 and KRW 219.2bn (1.0%) in 2025, leaving margins around 1%.
Owners' net income of KRW 1,017.6bn in 2022 and KRW 461.2bn in 2023 turned into losses of KRW 11.6bn in 2024 and KRW 6.9bn in 2025, two consecutive loss years.
Operating cash flow, however, rose to KRW 2,053.3bn in 2025 from KRW 1,777.1bn in 2024, so cash generation moved more gently than earnings given the heavy depreciation base.
On the balance sheet the debt-to-equity ratio improved from 92.4% in 2022 to 73.6% in 2025, though total liabilities stood at KRW 14,602.1bn at end-2025.
Quarterly, operating profit declined for four straight quarters from KRW 101.8bn in 2Q25 to KRW 93.2bn, KRW 43.3bn and KRW 15.7bn in 1Q26, before rebounding to KRW 57.7bn in 2Q26. Owners' net income also swung from losses of KRW 2.7bn in 4Q25 and KRW 41.0bn in 1Q26 to a KRW 8.4bn profit in 2Q26.
The company attributed the sequential spread improvement to higher bar and section volumes and the pass-through of coking coal and scrap cost increases into product prices.
On the other hand, second-quarter consolidated operating profit came in more than 20% below market consensus, and Hanwha Investment & Securities noted parent-only operating profit of KRW 11.1bn turned positive but missed consensus by 66%, with the shortfall arising in the parent business rather than subsidiaries.
Korea's steel sector is in a phase where regulatory floors are forming after three years of contraction.
The government imposed anti-dumping duties of 27.91-38.02% on Chinese heavy plate and, for hot-rolled coil, 31.58-33.43% on Japanese and 28.16-33.10% on Chinese product, and it has more recently moved toward duties on Chinese galvanized sheet as well.
On supply, Beijing began managing export volumes from January by applying an export licensing system to roughly 300 steel items, and Chinese crude steel output in 1Q26 was about 247.55mn tonnes, down 4.6% year on year and described as the lowest since 1Q22.
Yet the effectiveness of the trade remedies is being questioned.
Reports citing Korea Iron & Steel Association data said first-half 2026 imports of Chinese plate rose 17.5% year on year to 479,621 tonnes despite the duties, with volumes held in bonded zones falling outside the direct reach of anti-dumping tariffs cited as a reason. End-market demand is mixed.
The company said domestic shipbuilders hold order backlogs into 2029-2030, supporting stable plate demand, and it views auto sheet demand as firm with domestic vehicle output exceeding 4mn units for a fourth consecutive year.
By contrast, private housing construction is still described as heavy, and the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism effective from January plus high U.S. tariffs remain cost and export variables.
Management's second-half roadmap combines price increases with cost stabilization. On the 2Q26 call Hyundai Steel said auto-sheet price talks for the second half were in final stages and would apply from August, citing first-half raw material, scrap and currency increases as grounds.
It also said it is pursuing higher shipbuilding plate prices in second-half negotiations, centered on cost increases. On supply-demand, the company expects tighter conditions and a firm-to-steady flat products market as cheap imports are curbed and mills conduct fourth-quarter maintenance.
For new demand, it estimated roughly 180,000-200,000 tonnes of steel per gigawatt of data center capacity and about 100,000 tonnes per memory semiconductor fab.
On costs, reporting in early September 2026 cited an estimate that Hyundai Steel could save up to about KRW 145bn a year in power costs depending on the size of electricity tariff cuts. Investment and balance-sheet dynamics pull the other way.
The company sees annual capex of a little over KRW 2tn through 2026-2028 as the U.S. project ramps up, versus a prior run rate of KRW 1.6-1.7tn, with net debt slightly above KRW 7tn this year and next before a targeted decline below KRW 6tn as investment eases.
Among broker estimates, Daishin Securities forecast 3Q26 consolidated operating profit of KRW 111.3bn in August 2026 while Hanwha Investment & Securities projected KRW 146.0bn at the same time.
With such thin earnings, profit-based multiples carry little information, and market discussion has shifted to net-asset-based multiples. Summing the last four quarters, owners' net income is negative, so an earnings multiple cannot be computed, and the shares trade well below book value per share.
On this point, Daishin Securities said in an August 2026 report that the stock sits in a historically low zone at a price-to-book in the high 0.1x range, limiting further downside risk, while stating that a recovery in profitability must come first for the share price to rebound.
Eugene Investment & Securities, in a September 1, 2026 note, presented a target price of KRW 37,000, derived by applying a five-year average price-to-book of 0.25x to twelve-month forward book value per share.
On dividends, the company said on its January 2026 call that it expected a reduced payout versus the prior year given weak earnings and higher investment, so any shift in the shareholder return policy is a item to watch alongside the multiple debate.
Ultimately, whether the discount to book persists depends on two axes: how quickly price increases show up in earnings, and the debt trajectory through the U.S. investment phase.
PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are all calculated in-house (the same method as Naver and Toss) · Dividend yield = cash dividend per share from DART filings (supplemented by KRX) ÷ current price · As of 2026-09-04
The company said second-half auto sheet increases apply from August, and plate price talks with shipbuilders are underway on the basis of higher costs. Second-quarter 2026 operating profit of KRW 57.7bn versus KRW 15.7bn in the first quarter shows margins do respond when volumes and prices move together.
With margins hovering around 1%, even a modest widening of the price-cost spread can translate into proportionally large earnings swings.
Anti-dumping duties are in force on Chinese plate and on Chinese and Japanese hot-rolled coil, and China has managed export volumes since January via licensing on roughly 300 steel items. Reports noted domestic distribution prices for hot-rolled coil, plate and rebar rising year on year as Chinese inflows declined.
In addition, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has moved to mandate quality test certificates for steel imports, tightening oversight of circumvention.
The company said a dedicated power-infrastructure organization secured new orders tied to seven domestic data centers, and it estimates roughly 180,000-200,000 tonnes of steel per gigawatt of data center capacity and about 100,000 tonnes per memory fab.
The Louisiana mill is being built at 2.7mn tonnes per year targeting commercial operation in 2029, with output earmarked first for Hyundai's Alabama plant, Kia's Georgia plant and other North American assembly lines.
On equipment, a USD 650mn contract with Danieli covers a direct reduced iron plant and two electric arc furnaces, among other facilities.
Operating profit fell from KRW 1,616.5bn in 2022 to KRW 159.5bn in 2024 and KRW 219.2bn in 2025, keeping margins around 1%. Owners' net income posted losses of KRW 11.6bn in 2024 and KRW 6.9bn in 2025, two straight loss years, followed by a KRW 41.0bn loss in 1Q26.
Second-quarter 2026 consolidated operating profit came in more than 20% below consensus, leaving questions about the strength of the recovery.
The company said borrowings and its debt ratio rose temporarily due to the new U.S. mill investment and pledged continued efforts to improve financial soundness over the medium term. It expects annual capex of a little over KRW 2tn in 2026-2028, with net debt slightly above KRW 7tn this year and next.
Total liabilities stood at KRW 14,602.1bn at end-2025, with a debt-to-equity ratio of 73.6%. On dividends, management said in January 2026 that it expected a reduction versus the prior year given weak earnings and rising investment.
Even after final anti-dumping duties took effect, first-half 2026 imports of Chinese plate were tallied at 479,621 tonnes, up 17.5% year on year. The company itself noted that low-priced Japanese hot-rolled coil entering via circumvention and a domestic slowdown made inventory drawdown slower than expected.
With private housing still weak within construction demand, the scope of a bar and section recovery may be limited. Costs from the EU carbon border mechanism and high U.S. tariffs are also cited as persistent variables.
Hyundai Steel filed a revised air permit application for the Louisiana mill with the state environmental agency, including converting all nine gas-fired industrial heaters to electric heaters. Local environmental groups nonetheless maintain that pollution issues remain to be resolved before final approval.
Site preparation work has been underway with no permit denial or stop-work order issued, and the company said there have been no delays or changes to the project schedule. Permitting and litigation timelines directly affect groundbreaking and start-up dates.
The company said it passed higher coking coal and scrap costs into second-quarter 2026 prices, illustrating a structure in which cost increases come first and price pass-through follows with a lag. A weaker won has been flagged as a fresh risk to industry profitability.
As the electric furnace share grows, exposure to power tariffs and scrap prices rises too, and the regional electricity pricing system the government is pursuing remains a variable still in design.
Steelmaking is capital-intensive, so any production stoppage flows straight into quarterly results. In July 2026 labor-management friction across the steel industry was cited as a second-half variable, and reports subsequently noted that Hyundai Steel's labor and management reached a wage and collective agreement.
In addition, with the company citing fourth-quarter major maintenance, production and sales swings from scheduled repairs warrant monitoring.
Third-quarter results and the earnings call. How much of the auto sheet increase said to apply from August and the plate negotiation outcome shows up in parent-basis operating profit will determine whether spread improvement is real.
Progress on the Louisiana mill's air permit and construction start. Adherence to the 2029 commercial operation target and the handling of environmental group objections will shape the pace of capex outlays.
Whether the government's regional electricity pricing plan is finalized and how large the cut is. The extent to which the estimated annual saving of up to KRW 145bn actually shows up in costs needs verification.
Full-year 2026 results plus the dividend and shareholder return policy and 2027 sales and investment plans. Progress on the goal of cutting net debt from above KRW 7tn to below KRW 6tn can be checked at the same time.
The effectiveness of import restrictions. Implementation of the foreign trade regulation amendment mandating quality test certificates, progress on anti-dumping proceedings for Chinese galvanized sheet, and monthly Chinese plate import volumes all warrant tracking.
The past four years have seen both revenue and margins contract at Hyundai Steel. Consolidated revenue fell from KRW 27,340.6bn in 2022 to KRW 22,733.2bn in 2025, the operating margin slid from 5.9% to 1.0%, and owners' net income was negative in both 2024 and 2025.
Quarterly, the KRW 15.7bn operating profit of 1Q26 served as a trough before 2Q26's KRW 57.7bn and owners' net income of KRW 8.4bn marked a change in direction, although the strength of that recovery was assessed as falling short of market expectations.
The bull case rests on auto sheet increases applying from August and plate price negotiations, the easing of import pressure created by anti-dumping duties and China's export licensing system, and AI infrastructure demand evidenced by orders tied to seven data centers.
The bear case rests on the roughly 1% margin, capex of over KRW 2tn a year in 2026-2028 with net debt guided above KRW 7tn, rising Chinese plate imports via channels such as bonded zones, and the weight of construction demand.
On valuation, the shares trade well below book value per share, and Daishin Securities stated in August 2026 that improved profitability must come first.
What matters over the coming quarters is how fast price increases convert into earnings versus how the financial burden of the U.S. investment phase evolves; this report is for information purposes and contains no buy or sell recommendation.
Report written 2026-09-05 · Data as of 2026-09-04
This content is AI analysis of market data and web search results, provided for information only. It is not a solicitation or recommendation to invest. Investment decisions and their consequences are the investor's own responsibility. Data may be delayed or contain errors.