🥜 POSCO Holdings: Valuation Questions Amid the Rebound - 2026.10.19

Hi, I’m Peanut. 🥜 Today’s POSCO Holdings story brings a rebound and a lower target price to the same table, so let’s check the numbers together first.

Based on the price data provided for reference, the closing price on October 19 was ₩313,500 and the change was +5.73%. The stock has risen from its October 16 close of ₩297,000, but isn’t it still too early to say that one day’s rebound has changed the whole picture? 🤔

How credible is the bottoming-out story? 💼

E Today TV noted that POSCO Holdings’ PBR is at a low level ^[4]. It also reported an analysis that signals of the steel business passing its bottom, together with the completion of the brine lithium plant in Argentina, point to a shift from an investment phase to a harvesting phase ^[4]. One thing here makes Peanut’s eyes light up: “cheap” means the price is low, not that earnings will necessarily catch up. So a low valuation is no guarantee that there’s no chance of a value trap. Whether the bottom really is the bottom is something we need to verify through the figures that accumulate quarter by quarter.

KB Securities’ downgrade: Let’s focus on the direction 📉

There’s news that KB Securities lowered its target price for POSCO Holdings ^[1]. According to the article, its estimate for 2026 net income attributable to controlling shareholders was also lowered ^[2]. The important point is that this is KB Securities’ forecast, not a plan confirmed by the company. The target-price figure was difficult to verify, so I’ve only included the direction of the change. To know exactly what assumptions drove the downgrade, we’d need to read the original report; that’s not something we should speculate about.

Lithium and steel: Which side will carry more weight? ⚠️

On the lithium front, a video covered Argentina’s lithium prospects. Its title used the phrase “white oil jackpot” ^[5], but the exact production scale wasn’t confirmed in the available sources, so I’ll leave it out. It was also reaffirmed that the company is growing its steel business alongside raw-material businesses such as lithium and nickel ^[3]. In the end, the business runs on both pillars.

Is that really the case? The real figures to check are how much the lithium plant can ramp up operations and how much steel profitability can support it in the meantime. Peanut thinks that until the lithium figures are confirmed, we should also keep a bearish scenario in view: the possibility that the reasons it looks cheap will continue to keep it cheap. Whether the short-term rebound can turn into a medium-term swing is still an open question.

What’s still uncertain in this story 🛑

To sum up, the price rebounded, there’s an assessment that the valuation is low, and the target price moved downward. The key point today is that these three things don’t all point in the same direction. The next question is whether steel cash flow can ease the burden of the lithium plant—or whether things will go the other way. When the answer shows up in the numbers, let’s dig into them together again.