According to the statistics reported by the Industry and Information Technology Commission of the Chinese province of Jiangxi, during the first four months of 2010 the province registered a 44.5 percent year-on-year increase in output of crude steel, with the growth rate ranking first among provinces in China and being 1.8 times the average increase in the country. Jiangxi's actual output volume for the period ranked tenth among Chinese provinces.
According to the data, Jiangxi posted a surprising increase in profits in its steel industry. During the first four months of this year, the province posted a pre-tax profit of RMB 2.531 billion ($371 million), up 175.27 percent year on year, while it also registered a net profit of RMB 1.538 billion ($225 million), increasing by 24.88 times compared with a net profit of RMB 59 million ($8.6 million) in the corresponding period of 2009. Meanwhile, in the January-April period, the province produced 2.495 million mt of iron ore, up 21.50 percent year on year.