(LEAD) POSCO 2017 net nearly tripled on equity gains

(ATTN: CORRECTS headline, lead; ADDS business outlook and share price in last 3 paras)

SEOUL, Jan. 24 (Yonhap) -- POSCO, the world's fifth-biggest steelmaker by output, said Wednesday its net profit nearly tripled in 2017 from a year earlier on equity gains from affiliates.

For the whole of 2017, net profit soared to 2.974 trillion won (US$2.78 billion) from 1.048 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

Operating profit jumped 63 percent on-year to 4.622 trillion won last year from 2.844 trillion won a year ago. Sales rose 14 percent to 60.655 trillion won from 53.084 trillion won during the same period, it said.

Helped by recovering demand for steel products, the company's operating profit margin reached 7.6 percent last year. Increased gains from POSCO's non-steel businesses also buoyed its bottom line, the statement said.

PT. Krakatau POSCO, an integrated steel mill joint venture in Indonesia, shifted to a profit for the first time last year since it began operation in 2014. POSCO Mexico, an automotive steel joint venture in Mexico, and POSCO Maharashtra, a cold-rolled steel joint venture in India, posted record profits last year, the company said.

Looking ahead, the company is aiming to achieve 61.9 trillion won in sales in 2018. It plans to invest 4.2 trillion won in capital expenditure for this year, up 1.6 trillion won from a year earlier, it said.

POSCO didn't provide quarterly figures for the October-December period.

On Wednesday, shares in POSCO rose 1.54 percent to 72,400 won, outperforming the broader KOSPI's 0.06 percent gain.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
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