According to statistics released by Posco, the largest steelcompany in South Korea, in the first quarter of 2019, Posco's steel salesreached 16.01 trillion won (about 13.48 billion US dollars), an increase of1.0% over the same period last year, but operating profit. It was only 1.2trillion won (about 1.011 billion US dollars), down 19.1% year-on-year and 5.4%month-on-month; net profit was 780 billion won, down 28.2% year-on-year. It isreported that during the same period, the operating profit of other steelgroups in South Korea also fell year on year, and the Korean steel industry wasin a downturn.