Dongkuk Steel Q1 net rises 11 pct

SEOUL, May 26 (Yonhap) -- Dongkuk Steel Mill Co., South Korea's third-largest steelmaker, said Thursday that its first-quarter earnings rose 11 percent from a year earlier on the back of expanded output capacity and increased sales.
Net profit reached 130 billion won (US$119 million) in the January-March period, compared with a profit of 114 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.
First-quarter sales increased 26.2 percent from a year earlier to 2.2 trillion won, and operating income gained 16 percent to 164 billion won over the cited period, it said.
In May last year, the steelmaker started operating its third plant in the southwestern coastal city of Dangjin, about 120 kilometers southwest of Seoul, which has an annual production capacity of 1.5 million tons of steel plates for ships.
Shares of Dongkuk Steel Mill were trading at 37,000 won on the Seoul bourse as of 11:15 a.m., up 1.93 percent.