On August 29, Liaoning Province-based Chinese steelmaker Anshan Iron and Steel Group Co. (Ansteel) has announced its financial report for the first half of the current year.
Accordingly, in the given period the company's operating revenue totaled RMB 36.9 billion ($6.03 billion), down 6.24 percent year on year, while its operating profit totaled RMB 578 million ($94.44 million), up 120.53 percent year on year. Moreover, Ansteel's net profit amounted to RMB 702 million ($114.7 million), up 135.53 percent compared to a net loss of RMB 1.976 billion ($0.32 billion) in the first half last year.
According to Ansteel, although it has been difficult for Chinese steel mills to make a profit due to the ongoing sluggishness in the steel industry and increasingly worsened oversupply, the company successfully turned loss into gain by reducing costs and increasing benefits, strengthening the R&D, improving the product mix, boosting the customer services.
In the first half of the current year, Ansteel produced 10.42 million mt of pig iron - up 4.4 percent, 10.013 million mt of crude steel - up 3.82 percent, and 9.46 million mt of finished steel - up 0.73 percent, all on year-on-year. Meanwhile, in the given period the sales volumes of finished steel totaled 9.13 million mt, up 1.03 percent year on year.