South Korea's No. 2 steelmaker, Hyundai Steel Co., said Thursday its third-quarter earnings plummeted 79.4 percent from a year earlier as the company struggled amid an industry-wide slump.

Net profit came to 26.12 billion won ($22.98 million) in the July-September period on a consolidated basis, compared to 130.12 billion won from a year ago, the company said in its regulatory filing.

Operating profit also dipped 12 percent on-year to 330.89 billion won over the cited period, while sales edged up 1.9 percent to 4.08 trillion won, it said.

The decline in earnings comes amid an overall slump in the global steel industry, particularly in China, due to the slowing growth of the world's No. 2 economy.

Hyundai Steel, an affiliate of top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co., said its profit tumbled on a one-time cost of merging with another steelmaking affiliate, Hyundai Hysco, in July as well as foreign exchange losses.

The company said it will streamline staff and operations to improve its finances, while stepping up marketing efforts to tap into overseas markets.   

For the fourth quarter, it projected a bleak outlook for the global market as the slowing Chinese economy was weighing down on overall demand.

While demand from the construction and auto sectors have been increasingly rebounding, the shipbuilding industry was expected to suffer throughout the year, the firm said.

Shares of Hyundai Steel fell 1.25 percent to 55,300 won on the Seoul bourse, while the benchmark index KOSPI lost 0.98 percent. (Yonhap)