POSCO DX 第三季度營業利潤按季飆升71%

POSCO DX’s third-quarter 2026 financial results. (Source: POSCO DX)

POSCO DX posted a 71% quarter-on-quarter surge in operating profit in the third quarter as profitability improved in its IT business. The company recorded operating profit growth for three consecutive quarters after returning to profitability in the first quarter.

POSCO DX disclosed on Nov. 2 that consolidated revenue reached 265.2 billion won and operating profit totaled 16.9 billion won in the third quarter. Revenue increased 14% and operating profit rose 71% from the previous quarter. Compared with the same period in 2025, however, revenue grew 8.4% while operating profit declined 22%.

Quarterly profitability has continued to improve. After recording an operating loss of 1.2 billion won in the fourth quarter of 2025, the company posted operating profit of 3.7 billion won in the first quarter, 9.9 billion won in the second quarter and 16.9 billion won in the third quarter. Its operating margin rose from 1.5% in the first quarter to 4.2% in the second and 6.4% in the third.

The IT business drove the earnings improvement. On a standalone basis, third-quarter IT revenue increased 24% quarter-on-quarter to 121.9 billion won. Operating profit rose from 3.9 billion won to 12.2 billion won, while the operating margin climbed from 4% to 10%.

“Revenue from large-scale digital transformation (DX) projects within POSCO Group began to be fully reflected in our results, while stable IT operations supported profitability,” the company said. New orders included the expansion of integrated artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for group affiliates and upgrades to an automated inspection platform.

Orders also increased in the industrial automation business. On a standalone basis, third-quarter orders in the electrical, instrumentation and control (EIC) division rose 49% year-on-year to 184.4 billion won. Revenue increased 8% quarter-on-quarter to 138 billion won.

POSCO DX highlighted an order for a new 8CGL line at the Gwangyang Steelworks and the expansion of its robotics and unmanned operations businesses as key achievements. The company is also pursuing projects to extend physical AI technologies developed at steelmaking facilities to other POSCO Group operations.

Profitability in the automation business, however, declined slightly. Operating profit fell from 5.6 billion won in the previous quarter to 4.4 billion won, while the operating margin dropped from 4.3% to 3.2%. The increases in revenue and orders did not immediately translate into improved profitability.

Overall new orders continued to grow. Consolidated third-quarter orders increased 32.7% year-on-year to 246.9 billion won. The order backlog stood at approximately 940 billion won at the end of September, up from 700 billion won a year earlier but slightly below the previous quarter’s 960 billion won.

The company remains heavily dependent on POSCO Group for revenue. According to its third-quarter revenue breakdown by customer, POSCO accounted for 63%, POSCO Future M for 3% and other group affiliates for 31%. Revenue from customers outside the group represented just 3%.

Meanwhile, cumulative revenue for the first nine months of 2026 fell 9.2% year-on-year to 739.3 billion won. Cumulative operating profit declined 50% to 30.4 billion won. Despite the third-quarter improvement, profitability for the year to date has yet to recover to the 2025 level.