Baoshan Steel Quarterly Profit Down on Steel Price

Bloomberg - Baoshan Steel Co., China’s biggest publicly-traded steelmaker, said profit fell 7% in the first quarter after steel prices dropped.

Net income declined to 1.51 billion yuan ($241 million), from 1.63 billion yuan a year earlier, the company said yesterday in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Sales rose to 46.7 billion yuan from 46.4 billion yuan, it said.

China’s biggest steelmakers had a combined loss of 2.3 billion yuan in the first quarter, according to the China Iron & Steel Association. The quarter was the “worst” for mills since 2000, the trade group said on April 28. Steel rebar futures in Shanghai in March fell to the lowest close since the contracts began trading in 2009 amid slowing demand and high inventories.

Overcapacity in the steel industry worsened in Q1 as China’s economic activity remained weak, Baoshan Steel (600019) said in the earnings statement.

Baoshan steel pipe closed unchanged at 3.88 yuan yesterday in Shanghai trading, before the earnings statement, compared with a 0.8% increase in the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index. The stock has declined 19% over the past year.

Baoshan Steel Quarterly Profit Down on Steel Price