Shanghai-based Chinese steelmaker Baosteel has announced that in the January-September period of the current year its operating revenue totaled RMB 122.192 billion ($19.24 billion), down 14.9 percent year on year, with a net profit of RMB 2.254 billion ($0.35 billion), declining by 55.01 percent year on year. In the third quarter of the year, the company produced 5.431 million mt of pig iron and 5.519 million of crude steel, while it sold 5.399 million mt of finished steel, indicating respective increases of 5.89 percent, 4.01 percent and 0.67 percent year on year.
Baosteel stated that the ongoing imbalance between supply and demand in China’s domestic finsihed steel market and the continuous declining trend of finished steel prices have squeezed the company’s profitability.