In the January-September period this year, the ferrous metal smelting and rolling sector in China recorded a gross profit of RMB 24.34 billion ($3.6 billion), down 73.3 percent year on year, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on October 27.
The automotive sector recorded a gross profit of RMB 267.54 billion ($39.8 billion) in the first nine months, down 22.8 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 35.18 billion ($5.2 billion), RMB 99.45 billion ($14.8 billion) and RMB 111.73 billion ($16.6 billion) in the January-September period this year, down 3.6 percent, down 9.6 percent and up 10 percent year on year, respectively.
In September alone, the ferrous metal smelting and rolling sector posted a gross loss of RMB 5.09 billion ($760 million), signaling that the entire industry has been suffering from loss due to demand falling short of expectations for traditional peak season.
$1 = RMB 6.7165
