In the January-March period this year, the ferrous metal smelting and rolling sector in China recorded a gross loss of RMB 3.34 billion ($0.49 billion), compared to a gross profit of RMB 7.51 billion recorded in the same period of 2025, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on April 27.
The automotive sector recorded a gross profit of RMB 78.35 billion ($11.4 billion) in the first three months, down 17.7 percent year on year.
At the same time, the ferrous metals mining and dressing sector, the metal manufacturing sector and the railway, shipping, aerospace and other transportation equipment manufacturing sector recorded gross profits of RMB 10.99 billion ($1.6 billion), RMB 23.94 billion ($3.5 billion) and RMB 29.56 billion ($4.3 billion) in the January-March period this year, up 24.5 percent, down 11.9 percent and up 16.7 percent year on year, respectively.
In the given period, the aggregate gross profit of large and medium-sized industrial enterprises in China amounted to RMB 1.69604 trillion ($0.25 trillion), up 15.5 percent year on year.
The steel industry was one of the few sectors to shift from profit to loss in the first three months this year, indicating that the steel industry was facing structural difficulties in the given period. The core contradiction remained an imbalance between supply and demand - production failed to contract effectively, while demand continued to be dragged down by the struggling real estate sector.
$1 = RMB 6.8579