Hyundai Steel's steelmaking plant in Dangjin, about 80 kilometers south of Seoul / Korea Times file

Hyundai Steel, Korea's No. 2 steelmaker, said Thursday its third-quarter net profit fell by more than half from a year earlier due to falling prices and rising costs.

Net income stood at 264 billion won ($186 million) on a consolidated basis in the July-September period, compared with a net profit of 596 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The earnings beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 235.3 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

Operating income dipped 55 percent on-year to 373 billion won, while sales spiked 19.4 percent to 6.99 trillion won, it said.

The steelmaker attributed the downbeat performance to a fall in prices of key products and increased costs.

The company expects demand to remain weak due to an economic slowdown, aggressive monetary tightening and a slump in the construction and real estate sectors. (Yonhap)