Qu Xiuli, the deputy secretary of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), has stated that outputs of various steel products in China have increased at various rates in the first half of the current year, while there has been a dramatic decrease in domestic heavy rail output, which in H1 declined by 15.7 percent year on year.
Inner Mongolia-based Baotou Steel has two rail production lines with annual output capacities of 600,000 mt and 900,000 mt. Heavy rail accounts for over 35 percent of the overall profit of the company. According to a Baotou Steel official, the decrease in production in the first half of the current year will not greatly affect the sales of the company.