POSCO Holdings Inc.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Postco Holdings earnings call. As for the program of today, we will have a presentation by Postco Holdings followed by a Q&A with the participants. If you would like to ask a question, please press the star button followed by number one on your phone. We will now begin Postco Holdings 2026 Q3 earnings presentation.

Greetings. I represent the Finance and Iron Division at POSCO Holdings. My name is Kim Seung-Jun. Thank you to the investors and analysts for joining this earnings call for Q3 2026 at POSCO Holdings. In the third quarter, re-sparked geopolitical tension in the Middle East led to oil price hikes, intensifying energy supply chain volatility. U.S. Treasury yields surpassed 5%, adding fuel to uncertain global financial markets. Despite these fluctuations, POSCO Holdings registered $19.1 trillion in revenue and $940 billion in operating profits, recording three consecutive terms of enhanced positive performance. In OP, that was a 15% gain over the previous quarter and 48% year-on-year. By business sector, it was steel that led the overall performance gain in Q3 across the group. While POSCO suffered a short-term spike in raw materials costs by pushing up our price and production and sales volume, in addition to cost-cutting efforts, the steel business has been able to turn around OP in four quarters to the $400 billion one range in rechargeable battery materials. With lithium prices diving, POSCO Argentina going into regular equipment repairs and poor winter climate that is forcing reduced production volume and PPLS observing higher feedstock costs, We recorded an operating loss this quarter. In infrastructure, we have robust performance supported by profit gains over the previous quarter, owing to POSCO International's energy business entering boom season and POSCO EMC's plant business strength. Next, on third quarter key business activities and strategy update, please refer to deck slide four. In July, Posco Holdings at the CEO Investor Day, where we released our triple core strategy, comprised of industrial, strategic, and energy resources. Each core is making visible and specific progress. First, in industrial resources, we broke ground on CGL number eight plant on September 8th. This is a 450,000 ton per year automotive hot tip galvanized steel sheet plant. Second, in strategic resources aligned to our product diversification strategy, we're transitioning part of POSCO Futurums MNC production facility to LFP. So once again, the three element battery facility is now transitioning to LFP. and at the end of the year we'll be completing 50k tons of LFP cathodes based on which we will sign large-scale long-term supply agreements with the three key battery makers, thereby responding to the massive ESS demand. In Pasco, Argentina, we completed a plant number two. In Argentina, We will produce 23,000 tons of technical grade LC, which will be brought to KWANGYANG's POSCO lithium solution, where it will be refined to 25,000 tons of lithium hydroxide. After a ramp-up period, we expect to be commercially ready to begin production by the end of 2027. Third, in the energy resources sector, to expand the gas field assets, we have acquired 100% shares in the Shell gas assets in Marcellus, province of Pennsylvania, basin area. Going forward, POSCO Group intends to respond with flexibility to changing market conditions, and we want to be able to serve the energy industry. Again, based on our triple core strategy, we will be responding flexibly to changing market conditions, and we'll continue to galvanize our growth engine for future growth. Now I'll give the floor to the IR lead to delve into our third quarter earnings.

Moving on to page three, in Q3, consolidated revenue reached 19.1 trillion won OP of 945 billion won and an OP margin of 4.9%. Operating profit was 707 billion in Q1, 819 in Q2, and 945 billion in Q3, increasing for three consecutive quarters. We invested 1.6 trillion during Q3, bringing cumulative consolidated CAPEX to 5.4 trillion won. At the end of the quarter, net debt declined by 4.3 trillion won, QOQ. In addition to operating cash flow, we raised 2.5 trillion won through partial stake sales in POSCO International and POSCO DX, and approximately 700 billion from the sale of our stake in Woori Financial Group. And the stronger one also reduced the value of a foreign currency-denominated debt, and our net