Handan Steel’s profits down on high production costs

In January 2006, Hebei province based Handan Iron and Steel Group Company produced 621,000 metric tons of crude steel, 530,000 metric tons of pig iron and 617,000 metric tons of finished steel, up 4.31 percent, 36.88 percent and 11.99 percent year on year respectively. Nevertheless, high production costs still kept the company profits at a low level. In January, the company obtained RMB 36 million ($4.5 million) profits over RMB 1.93 billion ($240 million) sales revenue. The profits of the company were RMB 200 million less than a year ago. Yet, the production cost of the company in January was RMB 1.27 billion ($158 million); RMB 19.5 million ($2.4 million) or 13.91 percent lower than the average level in 2005 thanks to the measures taken.