KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 29): CSC Steel Holdings Bhd fell 3.64% at mid-morning today after posting a 78.78% drop its net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2018 (3QFY18) to RM2.98 million from RM14.04 million a year ago.

At 10.50am, CSC Steel fell 4 sen to RM1.06 with 232,900 shares traded.

The decline in profit was largely due to the increase in raw material prices and transportation cost that are greater than the increase in average selling price of steel products.

Meanwhile revenue rose slightly by 3.35% to RM336.59 million from RM325.68 million a year ago, mainly due to higher average selling price, which was offset by lower sales volume of certain steel products.

For its cumulative nine-month period (9MFY18), net profit dropped 46.72% to RM23.97 million from RM44.99 million due to higher raw material and transportation costs. However, revenue rose 7.4% to RM1.03 billion from RM956.07 million a year ago, primarily due to higher average selling prices and total sales volume.

Going forward, the group said the impact of the ongoing trade wars has continued to affect the supply chain of the global steel industry, especially in the Southeast Asian region as steel demand there has grown tremendously in the last few years.