SEOUL-- POSCO, South Korea's leading steelmaker, said Friday it is in preparations to restart stalled furnaces in its main steel mill this weekend, which were affected by Typhoon Hinnamnor.

POSCO suspended operations of three blast furnaces in Pohang, an industrial city located 272 kilometers southeast of Seoul, as the typhoon caused flooding of power supply stations and other related facilities earlier this week.

The steelmaker said it will begin restarting the furnaces Saturday in stages.

To offset production losses in its integrated steel mill in Pohang, POSCO said it will increase production at five blast furnaces in Gwangyang, about 300 kilometers south of Seoul. None of the furnaces in Gwangyang were affected by the typhoon.

From January to June, POSCO's net profit fell 19 percent to 948.52 billion won (US$688 million) from 1.177 trillion won during the same period of last year.

Source: Yonhap News Agency