PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are calculated in-house from the last 4 quarters (2025Q3–2026Q2) · Dividend yield is based on ₩270 per share · Prices as of the 2026-10-02 close
Wonil Steel saw both revenue and profit improve in 2025, reversing three years of gradual earnings decline, while in 2026 quarterly results have fluctuated as shipbuilding-driven forging demand and the anti-dumping investigation into Chinese specialty steel bars emerge as key variables.
In 2025, consolidated revenue reached KRW 398.1bn (+5.0%), operating profit KRW 12.4bn (+3.2%), and owners' net profit KRW 8.2bn (+23.5%), marking a recovery.
After revenue and profit contracted for three straight quarters through late 2025, Q2 2026 revenue rebounded sharply to KRW 114.2bn.
The anti-dumping investigation into Chinese specialty steel bars filed by the SeAH group began in May 2026, with a preliminary ruling due in September and a final ruling scheduled for February 2027.
The shipbuilding order boom is cited as a potential demand driver for subsidiary Haewon Forging's marine and engine forging parts.
The rise in the 2025 debt ratio to 69.6% and the swing to negative operating cash flow warrant monitoring from a balance-sheet perspective.
Wonil Steel was established in 1977 and changed to its current name in 1985; it holds two domestic subsidiaries and one Vietnamese subsidiary.
The company secured agency status from SeAH Changwon Specialty Steel, Doosan Enerbility, SeAH Besteel, and Hyundai Steel to run specialty steel manufacturing and sales as its core business, and listed on KOSDAQ in June 1994.
Its business model involves purchasing raw materials from major domestic steelmakers and supplying them as parts materials for various industries after cutting and processing.
Its subsidiaries include Haewon Forging, a metal forging products manufacturer, BM Steel, a steel processing company, and Vietnam sales subsidiary Wonil Steel Vina.
According to JobKorea corporate data, revenue is composed of roughly 67% mold steel and related products, 21% steel plate and related products, 7% forging products, and about 4% rental and byproducts.
Haewon Forging, acquired in late 2019, holds technical capability having been approved for its full range of marine engine specialty materials by MAN, the German global standard-setter in marine and power-generation engines.
The company maintains cooperative relationships with material suppliers such as the SeAH group and Hyundai Steel, though the inflow of low-priced Chinese specialty steel is cited as a factor affecting raw material supply and pricing conditions.
Mold steel for automobiles and forging products for shipbuilding and heavy industry form the two main pillars of revenue, and the company ranks among the larger KOSDAQ-listed specialty steel distributors by revenue scale.
| Quarter | Revenue | Operating profit | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025Q2 | ₩105.2B | ₩4.3B | 4.1% |
| 2025Q3 | ₩103B | ₩3.2B | 3.1% |
| 2025Q4 | ₩100.7B | ₩1.7B | 1.7% |
| 2026Q1 | ₩100.3B | ₩2.4B | 2.4% |
| 2026Q2 | ₩114.2B | ₩4B | 3.5% |
| Year | Revenue | Operating profit | Net income (parent) | Op. margin | ROE | Debt-to-equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ₩385.1B | ₩17B | ₩10.6B | 4.4% | 7.2% | 84.4% |
| 2023 | ₩380B | ₩13.4B | ₩8B | 3.5% | 5.2% | 69.0% |
| 2024 | ₩379.3B | ₩12B | ₩6.7B | 3.2% | 4.2% | 59.8% |
| 2025 | ₩398.1B | ₩12.4B | ₩8.2B | 3.1% | 4.9% | 69.6% |
Consolidated basis (financial statements including subsidiaries) · Final figures from DART filings · Net income attributable to owners of the parent · Data as of 2026-08-23
In 2025, consolidated revenue came to KRW 398.1bn, up 5.0% from KRW 379.3bn a year earlier, while operating profit rose 3.2% to KRW 12.4bn and owners' net profit climbed 23.5% to KRW 8.2bn.
This reversed a gradual decline that had run from revenue of KRW 385.1bn and operating profit of KRW 17.0bn in 2022, to KRW 380.0bn and KRW 13.4bn in 2023, and KRW 379.3bn and KRW 12.0bn in 2024.
This improvement is attributed to a recovery in the automotive segment as delayed mold-steel volumes continued, along with an increase in forging segment revenue driven by domestic marine engine order inflow.
However, the operating margin actually declined despite the revenue recovery, from 4.4% in 2022 to 3.5% in 2023, 3.2% in 2024, and 3.1% in 2025, suggesting cost pressure continues to constrain margin improvement.
On a quarterly basis, revenue and profit fell for three consecutive quarters from Q2 2025 (revenue KRW 105.2bn, operating profit KRW 4.3bn) through Q3 (KRW 103.0bn, KRW 3.2bn) and Q4 (KRW 100.7bn, KRW 1.7bn), with Q4 owners' net profit shrinking to just KRW 0.39bn.
This was followed by a modest improvement in Q1 2026 (revenue KRW 100.3bn, operating profit KRW 2.4bn), then a clear rebound in Q2 2026, with revenue of KRW 114.2bn (+13.9% quarter-on-quarter), operating profit of KRW 4.0bn, and owners' net profit of KRW 2.7bn.
Over the most recent four quarters (Q3 2025 through Q2 2026), cumulative owners' net profit totaled about KRW 6.5bn, below the full-year 2025 figure of KRW 8.2bn.
On the cash flow side, 2025 operating cash flow turned negative at KRW -11.0bn, reversing from KRW +15.4bn in 2024, while total liabilities rose to KRW 116.1bn at year-end 2025 from KRW 95.9bn a year earlier, pushing the debt ratio up from 59.8% to 69.6%.
South Korea's specialty steel bar industry faces structural pressure from market erosion by low-priced Chinese products. According to the Korea Iron & Steel Association, domestic specialty steel bar imports reached about 750,000 tons last year, of which 92%, or 670,000 tons, were Chinese-made.
Chinese import volume, which stood at about 450,000 tons in 2022, rose roughly 50% over two years while the per-ton import price fell 24%. Amid this low-price competition, SeAH Changwon Specialty Steel's operating profit plunged 91% from KRW 125.7bn in 2022 to KRW 11.4bn last year.
In response, SeAH Besteel and SeAH Changwon Specialty Steel filed an anti-dumping investigation request with the Trade Commission under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to protect the domestic industry and secure material sovereignty.
The Trade Commission accepted the case as filed and reported the launch of a dumping investigation into Chinese steel bars at its 473rd general meeting on May 21, 2026. The subsequent schedule calls for a preliminary ruling in September, a public hearing in December, and a final ruling in February 2027.
Since Wonil Steel purchases raw materials from these steelmakers for processing and distribution, an anti-dumping duty could affect domestic material prices and its own procurement cost structure. Conversely, the downstream shipbuilding industry is in a boom phase.
Hanwha Engine alone secured about KRW 841.5bn worth of marine engine orders in Q1 2026, equivalent to 43.3% of last year's full-year orders captured within three months. HD Hyundai Marine Engine's utilization rate also stood at about 89.4%.
This creates a favorable environment for demand for the marine engine forging parts that Haewon Forging supplies.
Per company disclosure, the automotive segment continues to recover as previously delayed mold-steel volumes carry through, while forging segment revenue continues to grow on domestic marine engine order inflow.
The anti-dumping investigation has a scheduled path through a preliminary ruling in September, a public hearing in December, and a final ruling in February 2027, meaning several sequential inflection points could affect domestic specialty steel pricing policy and supply-demand structure.
Amid the ongoing shipbuilding order boom, Haewon Forging appears positioned along a potential beneficiary path through its supply of marine and power-generation engine parts.
However, no separate capacity expansion or large-scale order disclosures have been confirmed, so near-term results are likely to hinge on specialty steel distribution volumes, pricing, and changes in raw material purchasing terms.
In the first half of 2026, results improved from Q1 to Q2, and whether this trend continues into the second half will need to be confirmed in the next quarterly results.
The rise in the debt ratio and the deterioration in operating cash flow are factors to watch in terms of the pace of balance-sheet stabilization going forward.
Wonil Steel has maintained a profitable run over the most recent four quarters (Q3 2025 through Q2 2026), but quarter-to-quarter profit volatility has been substantial, meaning the earnings trend that underpins valuation is not particularly stable.
The share price trades at a considerable discount to book net asset value, with a price-to-book ratio on the lower end relative to KOSDAQ-listed specialty steel distributors. Relative to net profit, the share price sits closer to the lower end of the multiple band the stock has historically traded in over recent years.
The company has a history of paying annual cash dividends, and dividend capacity tends to move in line with the recovery trend in net profit.
That said, the 2025 rise in the debt ratio and the swing to negative operating cash flow are financial factors that should be weighed together when interpreting the share price relative to net asset value.
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 2026-08-23
The ongoing boom in marine engine orders holds potential to lift demand for the shipbuilding and engine forging parts supplied by Haewon Forging. Engine makers have already pushed utilization above 90%, with Hanwha Engine's rate exceeding 100% at 100.7%. This could act as a factor diversifying a revenue structure otherwise centered on specialty steel distribution.
The anti-dumping investigation into Chinese specialty steel bars filed by the SeAH group is approaching a preliminary ruling in September, and the outcome could reshape domestic specialty steel pricing structures.
If market erosion by low-priced Chinese products eases, this could be a variable affecting the pricing environment for Wonil Steel, which purchases raw materials for processing and distribution.
Revenue, operating profit, and net profit all rose year-on-year in 2025, reversing the earnings decline that had run from 2022 through 2024. Following a soft Q1 2026, both revenue and operating profit improved noticeably quarter-on-quarter in Q2. Recovery signals are emerging despite quarterly volatility.
Despite the revenue recovery, the operating margin has trended down from 4.4% in 2022 to 3.1% in 2025. Intensified price competition, including a 24% drop in the import price of low-cost Chinese material over this period, is cited as a structural factor constraining margin improvement. If cost pressure persists, revenue growth may not directly translate into profit improvement.
Revenue and profit contracted for three consecutive quarters from Q3 to Q4 2025, with owners' net profit falling to just KRW 0.39bn in Q4. While a recovery emerged in 2026, quarter-to-quarter swings remain large, making it difficult to confirm a sustained improving trend.
Operating cash flow turned negative at KRW -11.0bn in 2025, and the debt ratio rose about 10 percentage points year-on-year to 69.6%. A continued weakening in cash generation could strain capacity for investment and dividends.
Raw material (specialty steel bar) purchase prices and supply structure could change depending on the anti-dumping investigation outcome.
With a preliminary ruling in September, a public hearing in December, and a final ruling scheduled for February 2027, competition from low-priced Chinese products could persist if the process is delayed or the duty level falls short of expectations.
Conversely, if duties are imposed, the possibility that raw material procurement costs could rise cannot be ruled out.
Both automotive mold steel demand and shipbuilding forging volume depend heavily on the cycles of specific end markets. A slowdown in the shipbuilding order cycle or renewed delays in automaker mold investment could increase revenue volatility. A repeat of the simultaneous revenue and profit contraction seen in Q3-Q4 2025 cannot be ruled out.
The 2025 debt ratio rose about 10 percentage points year-on-year to 69.6%, and operating cash flow also turned negative. If this trend continues, external financing conditions and interest cost burdens could increase. Whether cash generation capacity recovers is a key indicator of future financial stability.
Check the outcome of the Trade Commission's preliminary anti-dumping ruling on Chinese specialty steel bars and its impact on domestic material prices and Wonil Steel's procurement cost structure.
The Q3 2026 earnings disclosure will show whether the Q2 rebound continued and reveal any shift in the revenue mix between the automotive and forging segments.
Monitor the duty level and industry opinions discussed at the anti-dumping investigation's public hearing.
Track new orders and utilization trends at marine engine makers such as Hanwha Engine and HD Hyundai Marine Engine to assess potential volume expansion for Haewon Forging.
Confirm the final anti-dumping ruling and assess its effect on the domestic specialty steel pricing structure.
Wonil Steel saw revenue and profit rise together in 2025, reversing the gradual earnings decline of 2022-2024, and in 2026 has shown quarter-to-quarter swings including a rebound in Q2 following a soft Q1.
Its business centers on specialty steel distribution and processing, with subsidiary Haewon Forging's marine and engine forging parts cited as a potential beneficiary path from the shipbuilding boom.
At the same time, market erosion by low-priced Chinese specialty steel bars has been a factor pressuring industry-wide margins, and the anti-dumping investigation filed by the SeAH group—moving toward a preliminary ruling in September 2026 and a final ruling in February 2027—represents an inflection point that could reshape domestic material pricing going forward.
Financially, the rise in the 2025 debt ratio and the swing to negative operating cash flow are points that warrant confirmation. Valuation shows the shares trading at a discount to net asset value, but the high volatility in quarterly results calls for caution in drawing trend-based conclusions.
Investors should watch the anti-dumping investigation timeline, shipbuilding order flow, and the pace of automotive mold steel demand recovery together.
Report written 2026-09-05 · Data as of 2026-09-04
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