Korea Ratings Upgrades Poongsan Bonds to AA-

Korea Ratings upgraded Poongsan's unsecured bond credit rating from A+ to AA-, the ratings agency said. It also raised the company's commercial paper rating from A2+ to A1.

The upgrade follows a rise in profitability at the copper division, where the operating profit margin reached 9.0% in the first half of this year. Consolidated operating profit climbed to 215.4 billion won in the same period, according to bloter.net.

Korea Ratings assumed Poongsan's sales growth rate would be 10% this year and 5% annually thereafter, and estimated an average cost of sales ratio for 2026-2027 at 85-87%.

Leverage expected to ease

The agency projected Poongsan's consolidated net debt/EBITDA to fall from 2.1x last year to 1.7x this year and 1.6x next year, with the debt dependence ratio easing from 24.9% to 23.1% this year and 21.7% next year.

The assessment reflected Poongsan's total investment plan of 138 billion won for this year, including 68 billion won for defense, 30 billion won for copper and 40 billion won for maintenance.

Earlier moves in the copper market provide context. In the first half of this year the Jeon Ki-dong price rose to $13,088 per ton, after the average LME price rose from $8,871 per ton in 2021-2023 to $9,542 in 2024-2025.