China Steel Corp. (2002.TW), Taiwan's largest steel producer by revenue, Tuesday said its unaudited pretax profit in January more than tripled from a year earlier to NT$4.18 billion (US$130.3 million), as its revenue soared to over one year high.

The company didn't give a profit figure for the same month a year earlier, when the global economic downturn battered demand for steel.

"The first quarter last year was horrible," said Executive Vice President L.M. Chung.

Revenue in January rose 80% to NT$18.54 billion from NT$10.29 billion a year earlier, the company said. It was the highest monthly revenue since NT$24.62 billion in October 2008.

Chung said the company's revenue in February will fall slightly because the Lunar New Year holiday, this year lasting from Feb. 13 through Feb. 19, will reduce the number of working days.

"But we will continue delivering products for exports and will give incentives to local customers to pick up goods earlier," said Chung.

Separately, Chung said the company has begun annual talks with iron ore and coal suppliers, adding ore prices will likely be raised by at least 30% from last year because of the dominant industry position of iron ore miners, though no party has finalized this year's prices yet.

The global iron ore industry is dominated by Brazilian miner Vale S.A. (VALE) and Anglo-Australian diversified miners BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) and Rio Tinto PLC (RTP).

Suppliers have suggested to shift to semiannual or quarterly price adjustments, "with the longer the contract, the higher the price," said Chung. "That was they can hike prices more often."

-By Alex Pevzner, Dow Jones Newswires; 8862-2502-2557; alex.pevzner@dowjones.com