According to the third quarter report issued on October 21 by Anhui Province-based Chinese steelmaker Masteel, in the quarter in question the steel producer's net profit was only RMB 3.0364 million ($0.455 million), whereas it had reached RMB 802 million ($120.34 million) in the same quarter of 2009. Masteel said that its low net profit for the third quarter was influenced by higher raw material costs.
In the first half of the current year, Masteel had seen a net profit of RMB 1.042 billion ($0.156 billion), with a first quarter net profit of RMB 520 million ($77.96 million). Thus, in the January-September period this year Masteel's net profit was RMB 1.045 billion ($0.157 billion), compared to RMB 6.9149 million ($1.037 million) in the corresponding period of last year.
In the third quarter this year, Masteel produced 3.84 million mt of pig iron, 4.07 million mt of crude steel and 3.8 million mt of finished steel, up 3.23 percent, 3.56 percent and 0.8 percent year on year. Also in the third quarter, the company sales revenues amounted to RMB 16.997 billion ($2.55 billion), up 17.99 percent, on the back of increases in sales volumes and in average sales prices.