In the January-August period this year, the ferrous metal smelting and rolling sector in China recorded a gross profit of RMB 29.43 billion ($4.4 billion), down 62.4 percent year on year, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on September 28.
The automotive sector recorded a gross profit of RMB 253.38 billion ($37.5 billion) in the first eight months, down 16.0 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 31.37 billion ($4.2 billion), RMB 88.79 billion ($11.2 billion) and RMB 98.48 billion ($12.8 billion) in the January-August period this year, down 2.8 percent, down 6.3 percent and up 10.9 percent year on year, respectively.
In August alone, the ferrous metal smelting and rolling sector only posted a gross profit of RMB 340 million ($50.4 million), signaling that the entire industry was hovering near the break-even line in August - a sharp deterioration compared with the first half of the year, when monthly profits routinely reached several billion yuan. The relatively high iron ore, coking coal and coke prices negatively affected steelmakers' profitability in August.
