According to the report issued on August 23 by Inner Mongolia-based Chinese steelmaker Baotou Iron and Steel (Baogang Group), in the first half of the current year the company achieved a net profit of RMB 374 million ($55.08 million), mainly due to the market rebound and steel price increases, compared to a net loss of RMB 748 million in the same period last year.
In the first six months of this year, Baogang Group's sales revenues amounted to RMB 18.896 billion ($2.78 billion), up 9.25 percent year on year, while operating costs were RMB 17.48 billion ($2.57 billion), up 0.52 percent year on year.
Baogang Group's output volumes for pig iron, crude steel and finished steel all indicated decreases for the period. In H1, the company produced 4.9114 million mt of crude steel, down 2.08 percent year on year, 4.7664 million mt of pig iron, down 1.21 percent year on year, and 4.6739 million mt of finished steel, down 2.44 percent year on year.